Whom do you Prefer?
by Linda Chicana
Summary: Growing up as an orphan in Amegakure is hard. Especially with a mean voice in your head. Sakura decides to become great and starts training to be a ninja. She meets a boy and he becomes her first friend. But will she survive all of these changes?
1. Chapter 1

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! I read this one-shot named 'The Favorite' by _AIBOUGiRL. _I fell in love with it instantly. After getting permission from this awesome author(s) I am creating a story based on it. Read the one-shot and you will know what I'm doing with the story. I hope I do the one-shot justice and make an awesome story!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

'**Blah'**= Inner Sakura

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

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"Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day…" A lone pink haired girl was singing to herself as she walked the streets of Amegakure. She was drenched and shivering but didn't seem to notice; she just kept singing softly to herself.

Her stomach gave a small growl and she clutched it with one hand. _'I'm hungry.' _Somewhere in her mind there was a snort, **'Of course we're hungry. We haven't eaten in a couple days.'** She furrowed her brows at the voice.

Why was the voice always so mean to her? A sigh and the voice talked again, **'Let's just find some food okay?' **She didn't argue and began looking for food. The street she was on had vendors despite the fact that it was raining.

She walked past the vendors trying to find one suitable to swipe food from. One vendor was bargaining with a customer. She watched the two men argue as she inched closer and closer to the apples the vendor had on display.

The men took no notice to her and she took two decently sized apples and tucked them into her shirt. She wasted no time in leaving and soon she couldn't hear the two men any longer. She continued walking and soon found herself in front of one of the few parks in Amegakure.

She watched as the other children played and took out one of the apples and began eating it. As she watched the other kids play she wondered why no one played with her. Wondered why she was so alone.

As she watched them she noticed that they were all bigger then her. Was that why she was so lonely? Was it because she was smaller then them? She had finished her apple and tossed the core away.

She sat on the floor and stared at her hands. They were so small. The sound of feet coming toward her made her look up. A group of girls and some boys were standing in front of her.

"What's your name?" A girl with purple hair and brown eyes asked. The little girl stared at her before muttering her name. "What? Speak up you little freak." The purple girl said.

The pink haired girl took in a breath before repeating her name louder, "Sakura." The girl stepped forward and leaned down a little, "Well Sakura," she said tauntingly, "You're not welcome here. Go away."

Sakura blinked in confusion, "Why can't I stay here? I'm not bothering anyone." The purple haired girl narrowed her eyes. "You're ugly and I don't want to see you. Now leave." When Sakura stayed sitting she became aggravated and grasped Sakura's short pink locks.

She pulled on Sakura's hair until Sakura was standing. She lowered her mouth to her ear, "Didn't you hear me you little freak? Go away before I make you." Then she threw Sakura away from herself. Sakura landed in the mud and the purple haired girl stood watching as she picked herself up.

She sneered at Sakura's tearful, muddy form, "Pathetic, weak, and ugly. Hurry up and leave now before I get angry." Sakura left quickly not wanting a beating from the group of kids. **'You should have kicked her ass.' **

The voice was being mean again. **'Well maybe I won't be so mean if you stop being so stupid.' **She wasn't stupid; in fact she was very smart for her age. **'If you're so smart why don't we have any friends?'**

Didn't she already figure that out? It was because she was small. **'That girl called us pathetic, weak, and ugly. Not small.' **Well maybe the two (or was it four?) we're the same thing. She was small and that's why she was all those things.

Maybe once she gets bigger she won't be pathetic like the girl said. Maybe she'll be strong and beautiful. **'How do we do that?'** Sakura stopped walking as she contemplated this. How would she do that? She turned her head to the side and saw the ninja academy.

She blinked then smiled. That was it! She would become a ninja! All the kunoichi she'd seen we're strong and beautiful. They weren't pathetic at all. **'But we can't enroll in the academy. We're an orphan that no one cares about remember.'**

Sakura's shoulders fell. That's right. She couldn't enroll in the academy to become a ninja. Her brow furrowed as she thought over her predicament. Maybe she didn't need to go to school to become a ninja. What if she taught herself?

'**How are we going to do that? We don't know the first thing about being a ninja.' **The library. The library should have everything she'd need to know about becoming a ninja. The voice thought about it then agreed. Sakura, giddy with excitement, ran to the library to begin her research.

A few hours later she was in a corner of the library surrounded by countless scrolls. She looked at the clock and saw that the library would be closing soon. She stood, stretched, and then began putting the scrolls away.

She had learned a lot from her visit to the library. She learned about chakra and what it was. She also found some scrolls on how to increase her supply of chakra by meditating. She would have to increase her chakra after she had begun training her body.

From what she read a ninja had stamina, endurance, dexterity, and strength. Now the question was _how_ was she going to achieve all that? The voice said she basically already had dexterity. It said she used it every day when she stole stuff and dodged stuff thrown at her by the other kids.

So how was she going to increase her strength, stamina, and endurance? **'Maybe we should get some weight.' **Sakura blinked. Weights? What for? **'I dunno. But lots of ninja wear them to train or something like that.'**

Sakura shrugged; if the ninja did it then she should too. **'We need money though.' **Sakura sighed; she only had a little bit of money. But if would help her she would use it. She began walking toward her home.

It was an abandoned house. There we're cobwebs on every inch of the place but where she slept. When she had first found it she couldn't figure out why it was abandoned. Sure it had a leaky roof and was dirty but that was it. Or so she thought.

She found out why it was abandoned when she went farther into the house. The kitchen had bloodstains streaked all over the floor and the outline of a body sprawled in the middle of it. She had followed the footprints next to the outline to the master bedroom.

Blood was splattered on every inch of the room. The bloody footprint trail ended at the foot of the bed. There was nothing left to show who or what killed the person but Sakura knew it was gruesome.

She guessed that people were scared that the murdered person's soul was haunting the house for the citizens of Amegakure were very superstitious. But for as long as Sakura had lived there she had not come in contact with the soul.

Other then the bloody past of the house it was fine. No one bothered to go near it which was a bonus for Sakura because that meant all the furniture and personal belongings of the previous owner was left untouched.

She went to the drawer at the bedside and opened it up. Inside was various knick knacks (spelling?) from little reminder notes to broken hair ties. She ignored the contents of the drawer and instead grabbed the small bundle in the corner of it.

The bundle had all the money she owned inside. She tucked it into her shirt for safe keeping before leaving the house. She raced to one of the less expensive weapons shop and went inside. She browsed over everything and only grabbing what she could afford and what the voice told her t take.

She brought everything to the cashier and paid for it. She exited the store only to collide with someone. She dropped everything in her hands from the impact and scrambled to pick it all up muttering apologies as she did so.

"It's alright." She looked up at the sound of the voice. She saw a boy with orange hair smiling toothily. She was captivated by his gray eyes with a purple tint; she didn't know an eye color could be so pretty.

She stared at him for a moment and the boy frowned, "Are you okay?" She snapped out of her reverie, blushed, and nodded. "I'm Pein what's your name?" She blinked at him._ 'Did he just ask for my name?' _** 'Yes he did now stop staring like an idiot and tell him our name!'**

"Oh…ah...my name's Sakura." She said. He gave another smile and lightly tugged on her hair, "It fits. So you're training to be a ninja right?" Deciding not to talk she nodded instead. "How come I haven't seen you around?"

Sakura looked away, "I just barely began training to be a ninja today." He nodded then smiled, "Well good luck with that!" Then he went into to weapons shop. Sakura stood there for a few moments more then began walking home.

'_What just happened?' _She thought thinking over the 'strange' event she just went through. **'I think we almost made a friend.' **Sakura's eyes sparkled. _'Really! Wow! My first day of training and already I made a friend!'_

The voice snorted, **'We didn't make a friend just yet. All we know is his name. Besides I doubt we'll see him again.'** Sakura's mood instantly fell. She put everything she purchased on the floor once she got inside and went to her room.

Ignoring the bloodstains she flopped on to the bed and stared at the ceiling. Her stomach growled and she took the second apple she swiped out of her shirt and began eating it. She'd prove the voice wrong and make sure Pein would be her first friend.

She threw the apple core away and prepared for bed. Crawling into bed she sighed and closed her eyes. Before she fell asleep the voice spoke again, **'Stop calling me a voice, my name is Inner Sakura.' **She said while pointing to the kanji on her forehead that said her name,** 'But you can just call me Inner 'kay.' **Sakura smiled and said goodnight to Inner rolled her eyes but said goodnight also.

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I think I did good on this. Thank you for reading and please give me your thoughts on this! Till next we meet! Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana

**P.S.**

**COMIC CON 2010! WHOO HOOO! BATMAN RULES! LOL (this is her sister!)**

P.S.S or P.P.S (which one is it?)

My sister is crazy and wouldn't let me delete that. Older sisters are just weird like that. Well mine is...yeah... (this is Linda Chicana for those of you to slow to catch on)


	2. Chapter 2

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Oh my gosh you guys I'm sorry for the late update! The thing is I really suck at multi-tasking when it comes to writing stories. When I first read _Defenstration of the Mind's _one-shot I just had to make a full length story for it. So I made the 1st chapter and posted it so that I wouldn't forget the concept I wanted for the story and finished my second story Operation Regulate. But not that I finished that I can get back to this story!

**Defenstration of the Mind: **Again, I'm so sorry for the late update. I hope I can make up for it.

**Yoi no Chi: **I'm glad you love it!

**Gaasakufoevah: **Thank you!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Sakura awoke the next eager to begin her training. Quickly scrambling out of bed she laid out all that she purchased the day before in front of herself. Staring at them she frowned, what was she supposed to do now? She didn't know the first thing about training or how she was supposed to handle the various objects she purchased. **'You're a dumbass.'** She sighed at the familiar growl in her head. Inner was awake. **'Of course I'm awake stupid! When you wake up so do I! Fucking dumbass...' **

Sakura ignored Inner's mean words and tried to remember what the nice man at the weapon shop told her to do.** 'He said to strap the weights to our limbs, they're supposed to build up our speed and endurance or some shit like that.' **Sakura nodded, she could faintly remember the man saying something of the sort. Now how much was she supposed to use? **'How much do we weigh?' **Sakura thought a moment, she should be around 50 pounds, at least that's what the average 7 year should weigh. **'Put 5 lbs on each limb then.' **

Deciding not to question her, Sakura dutifully strapped the weights to her body. After securing the black wraps to her body she stood, wobbling a bit at the added weight. Cautiously flexing her arm she looked down at the rest of what she purchased. There were some used kunai knives, shuriken, senbon needles, additional weights, a weapon sharpener, and a small pouch. She set the weights and weapon sharpener on top of her bed and began to fill her pouch with her weapons. Strapping it to her thigh like she'd seen the ninja do she walked out of her house.

As usual, it was raining. She turned away from the village and began walking into the forest. The forest was a dangerous place, this she knew. Amegakure may be more industrialized then the other hidden villages, but it's terrain was an obscure one. The village itself was built at the base of several ancient mountain ranges. Around theses ranges were multiple valleys each with a unique characteristic of it's own. Numerous rivers weaved throughout the entire outside of the city, each connecting to the main river, called the Moving Sea, which ran all the way to the sea.

She wasn't quite sure what dwelled inside the forest and valleys, but she knew that many rouge nin traveled to Amegakure to escape their own villages. She knew it was foolish to go outside the village rather than train in the ninja training grouds inside the village, but she was determined to train in such a way that nothing in the forest could harm her. And to begin that she had to find a place inside the forest where she could become familar with it and train herself in the ways of a ninja.

She was not far inside the forest when she stumbled upon a valley. The valley consisted of trees, jagged boulders, and a waterfall at the far end. She walked closer to the water fall and marveled and the booming sound the water made. She wondered how old it was when Inner decided to talk, **'You know, this may be the place we're looking for.'**Puzzled Sakura looked around, Inner wanted them to train here? **'Well why not? It's not far from our house so we could escape there if anything bad happens, there's trees to throw our weapons at, and we could practice all types of ninjutsu with all these different elements here.'**

After hearing this Sakura's eyes sparkled, Inner was right! This was the perfect place for her to begin her training. Now she just had to figure out how to handle her weapons. Reaching inside her pouch Sakura grabbed some kunai knives. Working her hands around it she tried to find the most comfortable position to grip it. Finding one she crouched down and stared at the tree some feet away from herself. Taking a deep breath she flung the knife...only to have it reach half way to the tree.

She heard a chuckle and felt her cheeks flame, Inner was laughing at her! Gripping another prepared herself again. This time she threw the knife with more force and smiled when it embedded itself into the bottom part of the tree. _'Take that Inner!'_She thought triumphantly. She heard a snort and Inner rolled her eyes, **'So you hit the tree, that doesn't mean anything. There's no target so you can't see how good you are.'**Sakura frowned_, 'If you know so much then why aren't you helping me?'_ Inner thought for a moment then shrugged, **'Cause you're stupid.' **Sakura pouted and collected her weapons without saying a word in reply.** 'Oh come on, don't be like that.'**

Inner sighed, **'Okay I'm sorry. All you have to do is make a target, maybe a dummy, to practice shooting at. It'll help on our aim. Happy now?' **Sakura smiled and nodded. **'Good. Now we should probably be getting home now. It's getting dark and I don't want to be here at night.' **Sakura agreed, who knew what lurked in the forest at night. Sakura ran home hoping to beat the setting sun. Once inside the village again Sakura stopped and groaned. The weights were taking a toll on her small body.

**'Suck it up. We only have a little farther to go then you can take the weights off.'** She glared ahead of herself, Inner was really not that good a boosting anyone's spirits. Sakura walked the rest of the wa to her house, gritting her teeth at her sore and tired muscles. Once inside she took the weights off and sighed happily. She crawled into her bed beat from today. **'It's only going to get worse from here. Go to sleep Outer, you'll need it.' **Sakura mumbled a goodnight to Inner and fell into a dreamless sleep.

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This seemed to be way longer in my head... Please tell me your thoughts on the chapter! Hope you all have a Merry Christmas! Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	3. Chapter 3

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! Here's the next chapter! I hope you all like it! Oh one more thing, this chapter is one month after Sakura began her training. Please enjoy!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Sakura narrowed her eyes at the dummy before her. Taking a deep breath she let fly all eight kunai she held in her hands. She squealed in delight when she saw where they landed. Three kunai landed in the dummy's head, two in the neck, with the last three in the chest. As she gathered her weapons Inner began to talk, **'We should really learn taijutsu.'**Sakura blinked as she packed her weapons away._ 'You think so?' _Inner nodded, **'Yeah, we can't just train with weapons. We need to know how to protect ourselves without weapons too.' **

Maybe Inner was right. The life of a ninja is one full of surprises and to live in this world she had to train in every way imaginable. But there was one problem with this, _'Inner, won't we need a teacher somewhere along the way?'_It was quiet inside her mind and Sakura began to worry, _'Inner?' _Inner's silence ended abruptly with a loud curse, **'How the hell are we going to continue! Kami I can't believe I forgot about a teacher! No one in their right mind would want to help a useless orphan like us!**'

Sakura winced as she felt a headache form from Inner's rampage inside her mind. Maybe she should have blocked that particular thought from Inner. With Inner finally beginning to be supportive and nice to her, Sakura had forgotten that the littlest things could set her off. With a sigh Sakura grabbed the dummy and walked to the waterfall, skipping over the rocks Sakura entered the hidden cave behind the waterfall. Sakura had found it on accident. She was beginning her weapon throwing and one of her kunai went into the water. She dived into the water to look for it and when she came up for air she found the cave.

It was fairly dark inside the cave and the roar of the waterfall echoed on the walls. Walking further into the she found that it was rather large and dryer than she expected. Then she realised that it was hers. A smile blossomed on her face and she giggled in delight, this was _her_ cave because _she_had found it. No one could take this from her. She decided to use the cave as storage and as a second home. After making her practice dummies she left them inside the cave so that they would always be at her training ground. She stored extra blankets and a few pillows inside in case she ever needed to sleep here. Then she stored bits of food and small jugs of water. Over the month she had filled a small corner of her cave.

Walking out of the cave she sighed when her head pulsed, Inner kicked her rampage up a notch. Looking at the sun Sakura guessed that it was probably close to noon. She had been at her training spot since dawn and decided to search the forest for anything else that may help her training seeing as she had no reason to go back to the village. Nibbling on her bottom lip Sakura ventured further into the forest. Every now and then she would bend a twig so as not to get lost. It was an unusually clear day and Sakura was reveling at the feel of the sun on her arms.

Ame was rarely seen without rain but one the rare occasions that the sun was out Sakura made sure to lay and bask in the warmth the sun provided. Today, though, she was using the sun to help her navigate her way through the forest. Sakura silently prayed to not run into any rouge nin, she wasn't sure what one would do to a lone pink haired girl in the middle of the forest and Sakura didn't want to find out. The sound of people talking had Sakura freeze. She cocked her head and tried to find the direction the talking was coming from.

Finding it, she slowly walked toward it. Taking a kunai out she peered from behind a tree and gasped. There was a clearing and within it was Pein accompanied by a blue haired girl and a boy that had a more vibrant spiky orange hair then Pein. The spiky haired boy seemed to be ranting about someone and Sakura decided to watch what they would do.

"Where the hell is he? He said he'd meet us here to train us!" The spiky haired boy exclaimed. Pein sighed, "Calm down , he's probably doing something with his team right now. He'll be here soon." The blue haired girl agreed with Pein, never looking up from her origami, "Pein's right Yahiko. Calm down, we've only been here for 10 minutes. You're blowing this way out of proportion." Yahiko puffed out his cheeks and sat with a huff, "Whatever Konan, he just better be here soon." Crossing his arms he glared at the ground.

Pein rolled his eyes at Yahiko's childishness and lay on the ground with his arms behind his head and closed his eyes. Konan completed her blue origami flower and set it in her hair then brought out another piece of paper from a pouch on her hip to make another. Sakura abused her lip as she contemplated whether or not to make herself known. **'No.'**Sakura blinked, _'What do you mean "no"?' _Inner sighed, **'I mean you better not say anything to them. What if they're an enemy?' **Sakura frowned at that, _'But Pein's with them.'_ Inner rolled her eyes, **'And? It's not like you know the boy. For all you know he could be some mass serial killer!'**

Sakura sweat dropped at this, he was only a year or to older than she, she highly doubted that he was a mass murderer. But still, did she want Pein to see her like this? Maybe she should leave and wait until she trained a bit more before trying to talk to him again. This, of course, wasn't because she was scared to talk to him with those other people around. No. She just wanted to impress him. Inner rolled her eyes**, 'Yeah whatever, let's just get out of here.**' Sakura nodded but before she could leave someone grabbed her shoulder.

"Look at what we have here." A masculine voice said. Sakura let out a little 'eep' before slowly turning her head to see her captor. It was a man, possibly in his early twenties, with long spiky white hair in a low ponytail. He had two red lines that went down his face from his eyes. "What do you there Jiraya?" A woman's voice said. A woman with blonde hair in two pigtails came into Sakura's view. She was a busty woman with brown eyes and a small purple diamond shaped marking in the middle of her forehead. "Another child Jiraya? Honestly, just kill them instead of training them." Another man said. He was pale with long black hair, amber eyes with his pupils slit, and purple marking around his eyes that reminded Sakura of a snake.

"She's not one the kids I decided to train Orochimaru. But she's over here spying on them." The man named Jiraya crouched down until he was at Sakura's height, "Whatcha doing here kid?" Sakura pursed her lips as she examined the three people. Were they rouge nin? They don't look like rouge nin. '**We've never seen a rouge nin in our life. Who's to say they don't look like these people?' **After thinking over Inner's words Sakura agreed, she didn't know these people so it was safe to assume that they were no good. It would be best if she didn't say anything to them. With her mind made up Sakura just stared a Jiraya.

He blinked at her stare and looked to his teammates. Orochimaru rolled his eyes and grabbed the back of Sakura's shirt and walked into the clearing with his teammates following him. "You three need more of Jiraya's help then I originally thought. This girl," he said shaking Sakura a little, "Was over here for who knows how long and if it wasn't for us you probably would have never have found out about her." Yahiko gaped at the small pink haired girl Orochimaru set down, Konan blinked, and Pein stared at her confused, "Sakura?"

Yahiko spun to stare at Pein, "You know her!" He said pointing a finger at Sakura. Pein shrugged, "Sort of. I bumped into her at the weapons shop about a month ago..." Konan stood and looked at Sakura quizzically, "Why were you spying on us?" Sakura grew nervous at the six pairs of eyes staring at her, "I wasn't spying." She said quietly. Yahiko snorted and walked up to her, "Oh yeah? Then why are you out here?"

Sakura stared up at him, "I was training." Yahiko quirked an eyebrow at this, "Training?" Sakura nodded. "Training for what?" Sakura stared at him for a moment, "I was training to be a ninja." Yahiko blinked then poked her forehead, "You want to be a ninja? A little girl like you? Why?" Sakura frowned at him and took a step back, "I don't need to tell you why I want to be a ninja!" Yahiko frowned at her, "Fine! Then tell me why you were spying on us!"

Sakura glared at him, "I already told you I wasn't spying!" Yahiko put his hands on his hips, "I don't believe you, now tell the truth!" Sakura's glare intensified, "I am telling the truth stupid!" Yahiko sputtered, "Stupid! Why you little...!" He lunged at her but Sakura hopped away from his grasp. "Leave me alone you weirdo!" Sakura cried as Yahiko chased her. "Wait until I get my hands on you pinky!" Yahiko growled as he lunged for her again.

He grabbed the back of her shirt and tugged. Sakura's eyes widened as she was pulled back. "I got you!" Yahiko yelled. Panicking, Sakura took out a kunai an stabbed his thigh. Yahiko gasped and let her go. Sakura quickly ran some feet away from him and brought her kunai up in front of herself. Yahiko stared at his thigh then looked up at Sakura. He stared at the slightly bloody kunai she held then to his bleeding thigh, "You stabbed me!" He yelled.

Sakura glared at him, "And I'll stab you again if you try to grab me again!" Because Sakura's attention was only on Yahiko she failed to notice Jiraya come up behind her until he had her pinned to his chest, "Now that's enough you two. Tsunade go heal Yahiko." Tsunade frowned at Jiraya, "Don't tell me what to do." Sakura felt him flinch, "Please Tsunade?" Nodding her head Tsunade walked over to Yahiko and placed her hand over his wound. Sakura watched amazed as Tsunade's hand glowed green and when she removed her hand the wound she inflicted on Yahiko was gone.

"If I let you go will you behave?"Jiraya asked her. Sakura nodded and Jiraya slowly let her go. Yahiko gaped at him, "You let her go after she stabbed me!" Sakura frowned at Yahiko, "I wouldn't have stabbed you if you hadn't tried to hurt me." Jiraya pointed a finger at Yahiko, "Leave her alone." Yahiko's mouth dropped, "Are you serious! She-" Yahiko's rant was cut off when he was smacked in the back of his head. He yelped and grabbed his head in pain and stared at Konan. Konan stared at him with a blank face, "Shut up."

Yahiko pouted but pursed his lips nonetheless. "Now that that's taken care of, what do we do with you?" Jiraya said staring down at Sakura. **'Run!' **Sakura blinked. **'Didn't you hear me? Run! Who knows what they want to do with us.'**After dealing with Yahiko Sakura wasted no time in heeding Inner's order. She ran. Before any of them knew what was happening Sakura was gone.

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Sooooo... How was it? Please tell me what you think! I'm going back to school Wednesday so I'll try to update as best as I can. I hope you all have a great new year! Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	4. Chapter 4

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! Because I'm going back to school so soon I'll try and cram in as much Sakura goodness my brain can possibly make to produce awesome chapters. I have no idea how weird/retarded that sounds...don't judge me... Anyways! I hope you all like it!

**Shigeki-Hizashi: **Yeah about that, I originally wasn't going to use Yahiko but then I thought 'what the hell? he'll be fun to write' and then I was like 'fucken crack knocker! (lol cholo adventures) I forgot Pein _is _Yahiko'. So I'm going to actually have Yahiko live (not definite I may still have him die, I write these things as they come to me). So we'll see when it pops out of my oh so lovely brain 'kay!

**Nature Girl27: **Why thank you! I'm glad you think it's cute! I hope I can make this a good (maybe great) story for you to read and tell all your friends about so that they can read and review too! (no that wasn't a suggestion I'm just playing...or am I? The world will never know)

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Sakura ran as fast as her little legs would carry her. She knew she only had a couple precious seconds to create as large a distance as she could between herself and the six people she left behind in the clearing. With not knowing if they were good or bad Sakura's mind went into overdrive as she ran, for quite possibly her life, conjuring up multiple scenarios of what could happen if they caught her. Her pounding heart stuttered a couple beats when she heard the unmistakable sound of them pursuing her. _'Inner what do I do!' _Sakura mentally screamed.

Inside her mind Inner was running around in circles pulling at her hair, **'How should I know! Just...just keep running!' **Sakura growled at Inner as she jumped over a fallen tree, _'I'm kinda already doing that! Come on and think of something! I don't want to die yet! I'm only 7!' _At the prospect of dieing Inner's panic attack went up a level. **'OH MY KAMI! WE MIGHT ACTUALLY DIE!' **She then proceeded with running around in circles. Sakura glared ahead of herself, Inner was positively useless when she really needed her. Running into her valley Inner's panic attack stopped for a moment as she gestured to the waterfall. **'Hurry! Run to the cave! We might be safe there!'**

Quickly changing direction Sakura dove into the water, deciding to not waste time possibly tripping on the rocks and injuring herself. Once on the other side and in the safety of her cave Sakura took deep breaths to calm herself. She heard her pursuers stop in her valley and Sakura held her breath and scooted farther away from the water. "I can't believe this!" Yahiko yelled, "Because you let her go thins happened!" Sakura imagined Yahiko pointing an accusing finger at Jiraya. "Shut up boy. She couldn't have gotten very far. We'll fan out and search for her." Yahiko let out a stream of incoherent words then his voice faded away.

Slowly standing Sakura decided to stay in her cave a little while longer and walked to the back of her cave. She wrung her hair and clothes then slowly slumped down against the wall. Her lower lip trembled and Sakura bit it as she felt her eyes burn. This couldn't be happening. When she decided to train to become a ninja all her troubles were supposed to melt away, not turn into something worse. The first day really made the her idea sound like a great one because she had met Pein, the first person to ever be kind to her.

But now, a month later, that boy was hunting her down with his teammates and three adults. **'Outer don't cry.' **Sakura sniffled, **'Everythings gonna be alright Outer just you wait. We'll...we'll'**Inner's voice cracked, **'We'll make it out of this. We'll become a great kunoichi just you wait...'**Her attempt at consoling Sakura was ruined when tears began streaming down her face. When Inner's emotional barrier broke, so did Sakura's. Tears streamed down her face like tiny rivers and she hugged her knees, setting her face in them. Her small body shook at her attempt to keep her crying silent for fear of her hunters coming back to her valley and hearing her. Little did she know she was already found.

Pein watched her small body tremble as she cried. He turned to Tsunade and silently asked her what he was supposed to do. After all it was she that found where Sakura was. Before he left the clearing to search for Sakura, Tsunade grabbed him and hauled him to the waterfall. He was surprised to find the cave behind it and even more so when a crying Sakura was discovered inside. "Go comfort her." Tsunade whispered. Nodding his head he approached Sakura. Crouching down he softly talked to her, "Are you okay Sakura." Her head shot up and she stared at him with her tear stained face.

"St-stay a-away from m-me!" She said pressing herself against the wall. He frowned and reached a hand out to her. At her flinch his hand stopped halfway. "L-leave me alone! P-please! I don't want to be hurt!" His frown deepened at her words, "Why would I want to hurt you Sakura?" She sniffled, "You guys chased me." He gave her a small smile, "You ran so we followed." Rubbing her eye she stared at him, "So you guys weren't going to hurt me?" He shook his head, "I would never dream of it." Staring at him for a moment she mumbled out, "You promise?" He smiled, "I promise."

Sniffling a couple more times she looked away from him as sh wiped away the rest of her tears. Standing up Pein held out a hand to her, "Come on Sakura. Let's get out of here." Sakura gripped his hand and the two walked back to the cave entrance. Once outside they found that everyone was there. Yahiko's jaw dropped at seeing his friend holding Sakura's hand while Konan blinked at them then turned back to her origami seeming to not care about the sudden turn of events. "I think its about time you were properly introduced to everyone Sakura. That's Konan and Yahiko, my two best friends." Konan waved without looking up from her origami and Yahiko glared at her.

"Over there are some Konoha nin. Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraya. They're going to be training us for a little while." Orochimaru gave her a blank stare, Tsunade smiled and waved, and Jiraya smiled as he walked up to her. Sakura tightened her grip on Pein's hand as Jiraya crouched in front of her. "You're not going to attack anymore of my students are you?" She shook her head and his smile widened, "Good. Now why are you all the way out here? Don't you have someone to train yo inside the village?"

Sakura shook her head, "No, I'm all alone." Jiraya scratched his chin, "Hmmm... Well then I guess you're just going to have to settle with training with us!" Sakura blinked, "Really?" She asked shocked. At his nod she smiled toothily an tackled hm in a hug. "Thank you! Now I have a teacher! Oh thank you!" Jiraya smiled and patted her head, "It's alright, really! Go home now and rest, tomorrow the training will begin. That goes for all of you." The four kids nodded then left the valley. Once they were gone Orochimaru turned to Jiraya, "Is it really wise to train these orphans Jiraya? They're not even affiliated with Konoha."

Jiraya clasped a hand on his teammates back, "Come on Oro-chan! What harm would helping these children bring? They need help and I'll give it to them. Besides you and Tsuande will help too right?" Orochimaru shook his head with a sigh, "I can't partake in another one of your self-proclaimed missions Jiraya. I have business to attend to in the village." Jiraya pouted and turned to Tsunade, "You'll help right Hime?"

Tsunade sighed and scratched her head, "I really don't know Jiraya. That girl really peaked my interest but I still have to take care of Nawaki back home." This time it was Jiraya's turn to sigh, "I figured as much. Its okay though, I should be enough to train these kids. Tell sensei hen you get back that I'll come back once I'm done okay." Orochimaru grunted and Tsunade nodded, "We'll see you later Jiraya." She said. Then Jiraya's teammates left him to go back home for Konoha. He remained in the clearing for a moment longer before a perverted smirk found its way on to his face, "Now's the perfect time to conduct my research." He blushed as he rubbed his hands together, he then disappeared to do 'research' outside the local bathhouse.

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I know this is right after my last chapter that I released some odd hours ago but I feel like I really won't be able to update much until I get back into the rhythm of school on Wednesday so as I said before, I'll try to cram as much in as I can. I may have another chapter up tomorrow, we'll see if I didn't fry my brain with back to back updating. Please review and tell me what you think. Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	5. Chapter 5

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! School is such a drag. Honors Geometry is totally kicking my butt. It's only been a week but not having math for a year really messes with your memory! I'll try and update every week or so, it'll most likely be on the weekends. I hope you all like the chapter!

**Nature Girl27: **Thank you! I hope that this story will continue to get better as it progresses. The author of the one-shot I read deleted all her stories (for a new start you know) and so I'm using my memory to try my best with keeping it similar to her poem like one-shot she created. I don't know how well it'll turn out especially with the romance part (can't use experience b/c i haven't been in a relationship sad i know). But I'm happy you're enjoying it so far!

**Yoi no Chi: **Peak of the springtime of youth you say. Why thank you my loyal reviewer! I hope this 'peak' lasts until I at least finish this story. Enjoy!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Sakura lay in her bed going over the events that happened just yesterday. Running into her first almost friend (though now he may be considered a friend) and meeting his friends and teachers then after running _away_from the nicest person she's ever met she is taken in as a student by the weird man teaching him, Jiraya. She couldn't stop the grin that crawled on her face. Giggling she lept out of bed and began gathering her usual tools.

After making sure her weights and weapon pouch were strapped securely she dashed out of her house. She jogged all the way to her valley and found that Pein, Yahiko, and Konan were already there. Pein smiled at her once she entered the valley and greeted her with a friendly hello. Konan gave her the smallest of smiles then turned to Yahiko who was facing away from Sakura with a frown.

Konan nudged him a little and he gave her a side long glance. Konan's eyes narrowed at him a little and he sighed and walked up to Sakura. "Listen squirt," he said and Sakura's jaw clenched, "I'm sorry for accusing you of spying on us and for trying to hurt you." He stared over her head as he said this and Sakura's brows furrowed. _'He's apologizing?' _Inner blinked, **'This is the first time anyone's apologized to us for anything...'** At her silence Yahiko glanced at her, "Do you forgive me?" He asked quietly.

Sakura's mouth opened and closed for a moment then she smiled. "Of course I forgive you!" She said happily. Yahiko blinked at her, surprised that she had forgiven him so easily. "Really?" He questioned. She nodded vigorously and he shrugged, "Okay then..." He stared at her for a moment then scratched his head not sure of what to do, "So...um...do you know anything about being a ninja?"

Sakura nodded again. "Um...what do you know?" And so Sakura began to tell the three all that she read in the library about being a ninja. She also told them about her weights and weapon training. "Wait," Yahiko said after she told them about her practice dummies, "Where do you keep all your stuff?" Sakura's head cocked to the side, "In the waterfall." He stared at her confused, "Waterfall...?" Pein rolled his eyes and pointed at the waterfall a couple feet away from them, "There's a cave behind that waterfall. She keeps all of her stuff in there."

Yahiko gaped at the waterfall, "Are you serious! I wanna see!" He jumped up and ran to the waterfall with his teammates and friends behind him. "Whoa," He said once inside, "This place is huge." Sakura shuffled nervously as she watched them inspect her waterfall cave and all of the equipment she had stored in it. "You made these?" Konan asked pointing at the practice dummies. Sakura nodded and Konan wwent back to inspecting the dummies. "Sakura where exactly do you live?" Pein asked her.

"In the abandoned house just before the forest begins." She said. Yahiko gasped and ran up to her, "You live in that creepy old haunted house!" She blinked at him, "The house isn't haunted." Yahiko looked at her as if she was stupid, "Uh, yeah it is. There was a murder in there. The whole village says that the spirit's still in there." Sakura shook her head, "Nuh uh! I've lived in there for a while already and I haven't seen any spirits at all!" Before he could say anything Konan spoke up, "So you live there all alone?

Sakura nodded, "Well, yeah. I don't have any family or friends so I'm the only one living there." Pein and Konan shared a look and simultaneously nodded. Pein turned to her then, "Sakura," she stared up at him, "If it's alright with you, would you mind if we lived with you?" Yahiko's eyes bugged out of his head and he sputtered, "Live with her? In a haunted house? There's no way in hell I'm-" His rant was cut off when the air was knocked out of him when Konan elbowed his stomach. **'Say yes! We've always wanted someone to live with us, now we might get three roommates! Say yes!' **

"Okay...yeah! I'd like that!" She said. Pein smiled, "Alright, its settled then. We'll be living together from now on. Now lets go back outside to wait for Jiraya." He grasped Sakura's hand and the four left the cave. It was roughly 15 minutes later when Jiraya finally arrived. "Hey you guys! Ready for some training?" He received a few grunts and an excited yes. "Well first we're going to work on your guys' chakra control. You four will concentrate on walking on the river like this." He walked into the middle of the river.

Konan and Pein stared at him with calculating eyes while Yahiko and Sakura gaped at him. "Whoa! That's so cool!" Sakura said clasping her hands together. Jiraya smiled, "Now who wants to start?" Yahiko stepped forward with a cocky grin, "I'll go first." He walked up to the river, turning his head to see his friends he smirked, "Watch and learn you guys." He took 4 steps then fell into the water. Everyone laughed. He came up, spitting out water, and glared at them with his teeth chattering from the cold water. "I sure learned a lot Yahiko..." Konan said around her snickers. He pouted, "Shut up Konan."

He climbed out of the water and took off his wet clothes leaving him in his boxers. Laying them on a nearby rock he turned to his friends ars crossed. "How about you go Konan?" Jiraya said. Konan nodded and took off her jacket and sweats, leaving herself in a tank top and shorts. After setting her paper rose on her folded clothes she walked to the river. Taking a breath she stepped onto the water. She was able to take 10 steps before she fell in. She gasped as she came up, "It's so cold!" She exclaimed and quickly got out of the water.

She wrung her hair out as Pein stripped (into his boxers) and took his turn. He got halfway across the river then fell in. While he scrambled out of the water Jiraya turned to Sakura. "Your turn Sakura." Sakura bit her lip and twiddled her thumbs, "Umm...Jiraya-sensei?" Jiraya gave a 'hmmm'. "Um...how am I supposed to do that?" Jiraya blinked as he turned to look at her, "Eh? Do what?" Sakura blushed when all four stared at her, "How do I use my chakra? And how do I concentrate it?" They stared at her for a moment, "You don't know how to use your chakra?" Sakura shyly nodded. Yahiko laughed, "You want to be a ninja and you don't even know how to use your chakra!" He bellowed and clutched his stomach.

Sakura's face reddened. Pein glared at Yahiko and Konan smacked him. His laughing didn't stop but it went down a few notches. Ignoring them Jiraya crouched down to her level, "Hey its alright. This is exactly why I'm here to teach you. All you need to do is look within yourself, you'll find your chakra. Then he concentrate it into the soles of your feet. It'll be hard at first but soon you'll get the hang of it okay?" Sakura nodded and he smiled, "Good. Now let's see how you do."

Sakura walked up to the river and gulped. What if she didn't do it right? What would they say about her? **'Calm down Outer, I'm here to help you remember? Everything's going to be alright.' **Taking a deep breath Sakura closed her eyes and looked within herself, like Jiraya said, and searched for her chakra. A small fiery blue ball is what she found. Grasping it she concentrated on sending it to her feet in small waves. She opened her eyes and took a cautious step onto the water. Slowly walking on it she continued to stare at her feet, not daring to look anywhere but her feet least she fall.

_'Left. Right. Left. Right. Slow waves. Slow waves. Left. Right. Left. Right...' _Soon she saw green. She cocked her head to the side confused. _'Is the river supposed to be green?'_Finally looking up she gasped. She was on the other side of the river! Whirling around she saw her team staring at her mouth agape. Hopping up and down she squeeled, "I did it! I did it! I made it all the way across!" As she continued to bask in her glory Jiraya turned to the rest of his students. "Well it looks like the youngest has the best control. And she only just learned how to use her chakra! A little 7 year old beat you three, a bunch of 10 year olds...!" He trailed off with a laugh and walked across the river to congratulate Sakura.

"Looks like our little friend has a lot of potential." Konan said. Yahiko agreed, "Yeah, the squirt's got some talent all right." Pein smiled, "With her, we may be able to make our idea for peace become true in the future." Yahiko nodded as he brought his arms around his two best friends, "Maybe Pein, maybe..." They watched as Jiraya carried Sakura back across the river. "You three have to work on concentrating you chakra. Until the three of you get across that river, you have to stay here." The three smiled, "Hai!"

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How was it? Was it good? Bad? Please leave a review and tell me your thoughts! I may have another update this weekend, we'll see! Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	6. Chapter 6

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! Okay I got a review asking for this to be a PeinxSakuraxYahiko story. I have to admit, that sounds like one hell of a story. But, I won't make any changes to the story unless I have the consent from you, my readers. So if you want this to be a love triangle, PeinxSakura, or hell a YahikoxSakura story! Please just leave a review or PM me. Now on to the story!

**Zanna-chan: **Yeah, all my chapters are pretty short. I promise to work on that.

**asdf: **Thank you for the love triangle idea! We'll see if the story turns into that! And I'm happy my story is good so far. I hope it continues to be good until the end, whenever that may be.

**Nature Girl27: **7 year olds rock! I'm happy to see that you, and most of my other readers, think the story is cute/adorable.

**hanako love: **I know. I couldn't resist putting that in there.

**SakuraxAkatsuki: **Here's the next chapter!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Jiraya looked at the setting sun then turned to his shivering students. "You three managed to get across the river just in time! It's about to be dark. Go on home and rest. Training will begin at the usual time here tomorrow." With that said he left his students. Yahiko glared at his retreating form. "The stupid pervert could have at least helped us get dry." Pein sighed, "No use being grumbling about it. Let's wake Sakura and leave." He walked over to Sakura's curled form by the waterfall. She had fallen asleep a while ago from exhausting her chakra from crossing the river. He lightly shook her shoulder, "Hey Sakura, its time to wake up now. We're all done with training."

"Wake up squirt! We'll leave you here alone if you don't wake up right now!" Yahiko said as he walked to where she lay. Sakura's eyes opened and she sat up rubbing her eyes, "Huh...?" Yahiko sighed, "Nothing, never mind..." Upon seeing her friends drenched forms Sakura stood with a gasp. "You're all soaking wet! Wait here!" She disappeared inside the waterfall then reappeared some moments later with three big towels in her arms.

"Here! These should help you guys." They gratefully tok the towles and dried themselves off. After they put their clothes on they headed for the village. Once Sakura's house came into view she decided to warn them about it's state, "Umm, the house has old bloodstains everywhere and has some dust and cobwebs..." Konan smiled and patted her head, "It's alright Sakura. We'll fix it up sometime." Sakura gave them a quick tour of the house then gasped, "Oh no I forgot! There's only one usable bed in the house!"

Pein shrugged, "Then we'll all use that bed. I'm sure we'll fit." Sakura turned to him frowning a little, "Really? Are you guys sure?" Yahiko sighed, "Come on squirt, I'm tired. I wanna go to bed. Just show us the room already." Sakura nodded and showed them the room. The three older children's eyes widened at the blood splattered walls. Sakura began taking off her equipment an set them off to the side of the room, she then jumped into the middle of the bed. Yahiko was the first to strip his clothes (boxers on) and crawled into bed with her. He sighed happily, "Oh my kami... It's nice to lay in a bed."

Sakura turned to him curious, "Where did you live before?" Yahiko glanced at her, "We lived in this club house we made. It was trashed a while ago though. We've been living on the streets..." Sakura frowned, "Really?" Yahiko shrugged, "We had no where else to live. At least until now." Sakura smiled, "You guys can live here forever if you want to." He rolled onto his side and stared at Sakura thoughtfully, "Thanks Sakura..." Pein crawled in to bed an lay on the other side of Sakura with Konan next to him. "Night you guys." Pein said shutting his eyes. He recieved three tired nights then the four fell asleep.

**o0o Minor Timeskip (about 2 years) o0o**

Sakura gasped as she hid behind a tree. She tried to calm her erratic breathing while expanding her senses to find any threat. Ten meters to the west of her a heated battle was in action. **'Sakura get out of the way!'**Sakura's limbs sprang into action and she jumped away from her hiding spot. Four kunai were embedded into the tree she had just vacated. She quickly took out a kunai as more weapons came at her. Blocking the weapons she began to frantically search for her attacker.

Finding him she threw her kunai and smiled when she heard a grunt. Taking out another kunai she crouched down and prepared herself for her opponent. He came out of hiding and pulled the kunai out of his shoulder. He glared at the bloody blade and threw it at her. Deflecting it she smirked, "Is that all you've got?" He snorted, "I'm just getting started." He ran at her and Sakura raised her kunai to block his swipe. Sparks flew and Sakura winced at the power he put into the blow. Seeing this he smiled.

Sakura glared and her jaw clenched. Hopping away she threw several shuriken, all of which he deflected. Running at her he threw numerous weapons. Unable to deflect them all Sakura received some minor cuts. She blocked his kunai but was unprepared when he dropped to the floor and swiped her at her legs with a kick. She toppled to the floor and gasped when she felt the tip of a blade at her throat. "I win." Her attacker said. In reply she pouted. "Whatever Yahiko..." Yahiko laughed and put his blade into his pouch. "Aw, don't be like that squirt. It was a good battle while it lasted." He said as he offered her his hand.

Sakura sighed and took his hand. Hauling her up he gingerly touched his bleeding shoulder, "What is up with you and stabbing me?" She shrugged and took out some bandages from her pouch. After dressing their wounds the two began gathering their weapons and headed to the waterfall. Jiraya looked up from his seat on a rock where he was writing a draft for his first book 'Icha Icha Paradise'. He said that he'd become rich from it, but he refused to show them any of it. He smiled at them, "Who won?"

Yahiko smirked, "I did of course. Though squirt here put up one hell of a fight." Jiraya nodded, "Good, good. Pein and Konan should be finishing their spar right now. Just relax until they get here. Yahiko didn't need to be told twice, he laid on the ground with a sigh. Sakura sat next to him and began pulling at the grass. Not long afterward Pein and Konan entered the valley. "Who won?" Jiraya asked as he closed his booklet. "It was a tie." Konan said. Jiraya nodded and stood. "Well I have something very important to tell you guys."

They all looked at Jiraya, "I'm going back to Konoha." Yahiko quickly sat up, "What? You're leaving us?" Sakura frowned, "Do you not like us anymore Jiraya-sensei?" Pein and Konan just stared at him with a blank face. Jiraya shook his head, "It's not that I don't like you guys anymore. It's just that you all have completed your training. I said I'd teach you guys to survive, and know you know how. It's time for me to go home." It was quite for a moment then Sakura walked up to Jiraya and hugged him.

"I'm gonna miss you Jiraya-sensei." She said looking up at him. He smiled and patted her head, "I'm going to miss you too Sakura." She stepped back as her teammates came up behind her. "Thank you for teaching us." Pein said. Konan gave Jiraya a paper rose, "Don't forget about us sensei." Yahiko had his arms crossed, "What they said." Jiraya smiled, "It was fun teaching you four. Maybe we'll see each other in the future." Then he grabbed his pack and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sakura turned to her friends, "What do we do now?"

The three older kids looked at eachother, "Should we tell her...?" Yahiko said. Pein shrugged, "I don't know should we?" Konan sighed, "Of course we tell her." Pein nodded then turnedd to Sakura, "We have this dream Sakura..." Sakura's head cocked to the side, "A dream? What kind of dream?" Pein smiled, "The best kind of dream there is. We want to help purge the world of war and sorrow. We want a world a peace and happiness." Sakura blinked, "That sounds like a wonderful dream..."

Yahiko nodded, "It is. Would you like to help us achieve our dream?" Sakura's eyes widened, "You want me to help you guys?" He shrugged, "Why would we not?" Sakura smiled, "I'd love to help!" Konan gave a small smile, "Good. We've been thinking of making an organization for our dream. We're going to call it Akatsuki." Sakura smiled, "Are we going to have uniforms!" Konan smiled, "I already made them. Come on and I'll show you."

The four went inside the waterfall cave. Sakura watched as Konan opened a box and pulled out a black cloak with a red cloud design. Konan shook out the cloak then turned to Sakura, "This one is yours. Try it on." Sakura grabbed her cloak, running her hand over it she smiled. She pulled it on and looked at Konan, "It fits! Thank you Konan!" Konan smiled and turned to the boys, "What's our next step?" Pein shrugged, "Simple, we continue our ninja career and recruit members along the way." Konan nodded, "Simple enough we'll start with entering the chunin exams that are coming up then go from there." Yahiko smiled, "Finally! We're setting the plan in motion!"

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Yeah, I know it's short. I just wanted to get this out and start the voting for the pairing. So this is very serious, I can't continue on if I don't know which couple you all want. So please just tell me who you want together and I'll be sure to begin the next chapter and get further along the story. Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	7. Chapter 7

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! I waited as long as I could bear you guys, but no one came forward to break the tie between the love triangle and just plain SakuraxPien! I have to say, I feel bad for poor Yahiko, no one voted for him! Well, my sister did but she doesn't count because she's not even reading the story! Anyways, for now the pairing is undecided and I'll take Pein off the main character listing until I figure out who to put her with. I hope you enjoy this!

**SakuraxAkatsuki: **I know, people go overboard with the heart break when it comes to love triangles. Thank you for your vote!

**asdf: **Haha, now that I think about it you're right! The title would totally fit the story if there's going to be a love triangle! Pein's hair is more of a dark orange instead of red. Like I said before, I wasn't originally going to use Yahiko, but then I did and everything got kind of screwed up. What with Pein using Yahiko's body in the show... Let's just say Pein is a very, very, dark version of Yahiko with piercings (which will come later in the story). Truth be told, I no longer follow the anime/manga anymore either. It just got really stupid to me and the only reason I'm updated on it is because my friend tells me about it. I prefer the Fanfiction universe better anyway!

**Lungs: **Oh why thank you. I'm happy that it's 'fantabulos' and adorable! Oh don't worry, Sakura is definitely going to be a top member in Akatsuki, I have no doubt in my mind about that.

**Anonymous Reviewer: **Thank you for your vote!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura

Blah = Scroll

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

"Why can't I be enter the Chunin Exam with you guys!" Sakura cried. After Jiraya had left, they had decided to enter the Chunin Exams while looking for any potential Akatsuki members. But apparently Sakura wasn't going to participate in that. Sure she was a couple years younger, sure they were more experienced in fighting, sure they had more tricks up their sleeves and natural talent, but that didn't mean she couldn't kick some ass! In her opinion, she had every right to enter with them, but why couldn't they see that?

"I can make it! I won't be weak! I won't be a burden! I promise! Please, let me go with you guys!" She said pleadingly. Pein sighed heavily, "Sakura, it's not that we think you'll burden us. It's just that...well...you're to young." Sakura's jaw dropped, seriously? They were leaving her behind because she's to young? **'Bullshit! We should be able to go!' **Seeing the defiance in her eyes Yahiko spoke up, "Look squirt, we don't make the rules, we just follow them. And the rules say you're to young to go to the exams" Sakura snorted, "Since when did you ever follow the rules Yahiko?"

He opened his mouth then closed it seeing as she was right. Konan rolled her eyes at the boys' failed attempts to soothe Sakura's anger and said, "Since these two are too stupid to say it I will. You can't enter the Chunin Exams and that's it." Konan raised her hand to stop Sakura from interrupting her and continued, "We need you to do some recon." Sakura cocked her head to the side confused, "Recon? What for?"

Konan crossed her arms, "We need you to dig up any information you can about our opponents. The more we know, the more likely we are at passing the exams with our lives. Not only that but the information you gather may give us some potential members. You up for it?" Sakura frowned and stared at Konan with a calculating eye, then she sighed, "Sure. I'll do it. But that doesn't mean I'm okay with you guys taking the exam without me!" Pein smiled and ruffled her hair, "We know." Then he turned to the others, "The exam is in one month and it's taking place in Hidden Village of the Mist. It'll take us about a week to get there so pack what you need, we leave immediately."

Then he shuffled off to gather his equipment with Konan and Yahiko following after him. Frowning Sakura walked to her drawer and took out all of her medical equipment. Glancing at the kit she made a mental note to go to her cave to restock on gauze. Taking out a spare change of clothes she reached under her bed and pulled out her pack. She was happy to find that her canteen was already inside the pack as she put her medical kit and spare clothes inside. She sighed as she closed the pack, _'Inner, do you believe what Konan said?'_

Inner crossed her arms, **'About needing us for recon? Hells to the no! I mean they probably do need some information on the people but I'm pretty sure they don't need us to get it! I bet they already have all the information they need and they're only having us do this supposed recon so that we won't enter the exam!' **Sakura cocked her head to the side thoughtfully, _'If that's true, and I'm not saying it is, then why don't they want us to enter? I mean we're strong right? We would be a major help...right?' _

Frowning Sakura stood, grabbed her pack, then went to the living room to wait for her friends. Sitting on the couch she looked around her home. Since her small 'family' had moved in her house had undergone an incredible transformation. There were no more cobwebs nor was there a constant layer of dust. All the furniture was either repaired or brand new. Each of them also had their own room. Sakura kept her original room while the other three claimed one of the many rooms inside the house. They had even worked to make the small garden in the back flourish. They only thing that remained from her house's past was the blood splatters, no matter how hard they scrubbed the stains refused to even lighten up in color.

And truth be told, Sakura was actually happy that the stains didn't disappear. Her life had changed so much since meeting her three friends that it frightened her. She went from a lonely orphan with nothing but a 'haunted' house to one with everything she had ever dreamed of. Something to strive for, a home, people who cared for her, at least that's what she hopes. No matter how hard she tried, Sakura is still unsure about whether or not her friends care about her. Sure they live together and are a team, but do they really, genuinely care for her? She could never gather the courage to ask them, scared that they'd reject her. So instead she prays every night for them not to abandon her, she's had enough of that to last her whole life.

"Hey, you ready to go Sakura?" Konan asked behind her. Standing up Sakura nodded, "We need to go by the cave before we go." Pein nodded, "We're traveling that way anyway so we'll stop there." Yahiko shuffled his feet impatiently, "Can we go now you guys? The sooner we leave the better off we'll be." At Pein's nod Yahiko flew out the door, "Come on you guys! Hurry up!"

The journey to the waterfall was a quiet one and once there Sakura quickly went inside to gather her equipment. Stuffing some rolls of gauze inside her pack Sakura decided to stock up on her weapons also. After filling her pack she spied the trunk with their cloaks and blinked. She opened the trunk and ran her hand over the fabric. It was soft and silky yet hardy at the same time. Leaving the trunk and her pack Sakura ran to the entrance of the cave, "Should we bring the cloaks to you guys?" She asked.

They stared at her confused for a moment before realization dawned on them, "Holy shit! This would be the perfect time to announce our organization!" Yahiko said then ran inside the waterfall cave. Pein followed close after him while Konan calmly walked inside with Sakura. Yahiko shrugged his cloak on and threw the others to their respective owners. He then grabbed Sakura's pack and turned to smile at his friends. "This is going to be awesome!" Pein rolled his eyes and Konan sighed. Tossing Sakura's pack to her, Yahiko began marching out of the cave.

"Wait until everyone sees us in these! They're all gonna want to join!" He said as he left the cave. Konan walked to the trunk and reached inside and took out four straw hats. "Here," She said as she handed two to Sakura and Pein, "These should help with the rain and keep our identities hidden." She gave a pointed look to Sakura as she said this. Sakura pouted and stroked her pink hair, "It's not like your guys' hair isn't any less noticeable." She mumbled Konan smirked as she put the hat on, "Yeah but unlike you, we don't need to spy on anyone and we know how to transform." Sakura stuck her tongue out at Konan's retreating form earning a chuckle from Pein. "Come on, let's go." He said then the four left.

**o0o **

They were two days into their trip when they first encountered trouble. They had stopped by a stream to refill the canteens when the bandits appeared. Though none were very skillful, they irked Sakura to no end. First, one man had sneered when he found that they were children. Second, another ogled Konan and talked about giving her the best time of her life. Sakura had no idea what that meant but from the way he said it, the way the boys' faces contorted in anger, and Konan's disgusted face, Sakura guessed it wasn't good. And third, they had held a knife to her throat and ordered her friends to give up all they had or else he'd kill her! HA! Like he would be able to!

Sakura's cheeks reddened in anger at not only the fact that the man threatened her life, but that her friends complied with his demands! In her anger she elbowed the man behind her who fell down with a pain filled screech. He curled up in a ball as tears leaked from his eyes. Sakura grabbed the knife he dropped and flung it at the man that ogled Konan. The man, to shocked to react, gasped in pain when the knife embedded itself in his shoulder. Once her friends snapped out of their shock, they turned and kicked the bandits asses.

While they fought Sakura turned to the man in the fetal position. He was groaning and clutching his crotch. Pulling out a kunai Sakura nudged him with her foot. He glanced at her but didn't move. Spying a pack on him Sakura pointed to the pack with her weapon. "The pack. Give it." He closed his eyes then slowly shrugged the pack off. Quickly grabbing it Sakura opened it and peered inside. It held multiple scrolls, some food, medical equipment, and some money.

She closed the pack and stared at the man as her friends came over to her. She glanced back and saw that they had tied the other three men together. Yahiko whistled lowly as he stared at the man, "Damn... You got him good squirt." Sakura frowned, "What do you mean? All I did was elbow him and now he's on the ground. What did I do?" Yahiko choked on some spit as he stared at Sakura shocked, "You mean you don't know?" At her perplexed expression he and Pein blushed, "Holy shit... What do we tell her man!" Yahiko said.

Pein shrugged and looked away. Sakura frowned at them and turned to Konan, "What did I do to him Konan?" Konan smiled and patted Sakura's head, "You hit him where it hurts. You see, a boy is really sensitive right there." She said gesturing to where the man still clutched his crotch, "And when you hit him there he's as harmless as a baby." Sakura nodded still a little confused, "What do we do now?" Pein shrugged, "Leave them here and take their stuff." With that said they grabbed the rest of the bandits' supplies then left them at the stream.

Over the next couple days they hadn't encountered any other trouble and for that Sakura was glad. This allowed her to look through the pack she had taken from the man she beat. They had decided that everyone was able to keep the pack of the man he/she had defeated. Rummaging through the packs contents Sakura put the big wad of cash she found in her small money purse then put all the medical equipment in her kit. She then laid out the five scrolls in the pack. She opened the first one and stared at it dumbfounded. There was some type of seal on the scroll and she was unsure of how to release it. "Hey Yahiko..." Sakura said looking at her friend across the fire. Yahiko glanced at her and grunted, not stopping in sharpening his weapons.

"You know a lot about seals right?" Sakura asked. Yahiko shrugged, "Yeah, why?" Sakura stood up and walked over to Yahiko she set the scroll in front of him, "How do you release this type of seal?" He stared at the scroll a moment then said, "Blood. You need to swipe some of your blood over it while pushing your chakra into it. It should break after you do that." Sakura nodded then walked back to her sleeping bag and took out a kunai. She made a shallow cut on her thumb then swiped it over the scroll. There was a cloud of smoke, then Sakura stared wide eyed at the contents of the scroll.

There was a black bladed scythe with a peculiar design. The handle had a spiral concept almost like water that ended at the blade. The blade itself had a fire design etched into it. A pair of black fans one with a water design and the other fire, twin katana also with the same design, a pair of claws, shin and knee guards, and two plain white masks with the kanji for fire and water on the forehead. _'What do we do with these Inner?' _Inner shrugged, **'Dunno. They must be worth _something_ if that thug had them. And how weird is it that they all have a fire and water design?' **Sakura nodded, _'Yeah I noticed that too, what do you think it means?' _Inner scratched her head, **'I have no clue. But hey, how the hell are we supposed to put all this stuff back?' **

Sakura stared at her pile of equipment then turned to Yahiko, "I need your help again Yahiko..." Yahiko sighed then looked up at her. His eyes widened slightly at her new equipment then he smiled, "Looks like you got the best stuff out of all of us squirt!" At his exclamation Pein and Konan looked up and gasped. Sakura smiled as they came over to study her weapons. "Man you can do some serious damage with a big ass blade like this." Yahiko said picking up the blade. He grunted at its weight, "That is if you'll be able to pick it up!" Konan waved around her fans and Pein inspected her katana. Yahiko laid the blade back down then turned to Sakura, "What is it that you need help with?"

Sakura pointed to her weapons, "How do I put them back in the scroll?" He grabbed the scroll then laid it out, then he piled the weapons carefully on top of it. "What you have to do is seal them back in. First you cut your thumb and then make a few hand signs, then every thing's sealed!" Sakura blinked, "That's it?" At Yahiko's nod she smiled, "Thanks Yahiko!" After doing as instructed she sealed all her weapons away. "We should be heading to sleep you guys. We still have a couple more days before we reach The Village Hidden in the Mist." Konan said. "I'll take the first watch!" Sakura said.

Pein nodded to her, "Alright then, I'll take second." Konan raised her hand, "Third." Yahiko sighed, "Fine. I'll take last watch." After crawling into their sleeping bags Sakura said goodnight to her friends then opened another scroll. This one appeared to be a training scroll. She blinked at the information. It was all about fire jutsus! She grabbed her other scrolls and opened them. There was one other fire scroll and two water scrolls. Inner's eye twitched, **'Was that guy obssesed with fire and water? I mean all of his stuff is about only fire and water!' **_'Who cares! This stuff is cool!' _Sakura thought as she read the fire scroll.

Fire is a lethal element and is not for the faint hearted. It can be harmful and deadly. It can burn down an entire forest in as little as a day. But, it can also heal. A fire may have made a forest barren in appearance, but underneath the soil, seeds sprout. Out of the ashes new seeds will grow and the once barren land will once again flourish with greenery. Fire is the key element to nature, it helps to rid the old and lead a way for the new. 

The key to mastering fire is patience, as it is with many other tasks. Without patience, when attempting to master this element, you will burn. Also, you must remember that fire is not something you can tame. It's soul duty is to ravage the land and lay waste to whatever it encounters. Do not foolishly think that because you can summon fire that it will not turn on you and scorch you. You are borrowing the power of fire, not claiming it as yours. If you dare to attempt this, the fire will destroy all you hold dear and it _will_ kill you.

Sakura paused in her reading. What. The. Hell? She was beginning to believe that Yahiko's earlier words were more true then he had first believed. This was, by far, the greatest thing one could stumble upon. And it just so happened that she was the one that stumbled upon it! _'Inner! We're going to learn how to use fire!' _Inner jumped up, **'This is awesome! Once we learn how to use fire, we'll show everyone that we're great!' **Sakura laughed, _'I can't wait to tell the others!' _Inners smile fled from her face, **'Wait what? You ant to tell them?'**

Sakura frowned, _'Well yeah, they're our friends. Why else wouldn't I tell them?' _Inner shrugged, **'Oh I don't know, maybe because they don't think we're strong enough. Because they think we won't be of any use in the Chunin Exams!' **Sakura's face fell, _'No...they don't think that. They would never...' _Her thought trailed off as she stared at her friends. While she was going through her inner turmoil they were peacefully asleep. Unaware of her doubts about them. _'Do you really believe that they think of me like that Inner? Do you truly believe that?' _Inner sighed, **'All I know is that people are backstabbers. Even Jiraya-sensei left us! So for now, I think we should keep all of this a secret. Okay?' **Sakura nodded, _'Okay, but only until we know for sure!' _Inner nodded, **'Alright, now where were we?' **Sakura smiled and continued with her reading.

**o0o**

Sakura watched as her friends entered the village. They had decided that she would be going in after them, so as to not arouse suspicion when she began spying. The Village Hidden in the Mist certainly lived up to its name. The village and its surrounding area was shrouded in a thick blanket of mist. Sakura knew only one thing, spying in this village would be hard. Sure the mist would help keep her hidden, but that also meant others would be hidden too, making her recon twice as hard.

She took notes on all the people she saw entering the village. She wasn't sure which of them were entering the exams, but she was sure the others wouldn't mind. After all, they did say that she was supposed to look of potential candidates for the organization. Deciding that she had spent enough time outside the village, Sakura prepared herself to enter the village. After making sure her pink locks were hidden under the hat, Sakura strode confidently to the gates.

She saw the guards quirk an eyebrow at her and she guessed that it was because of her appearance, its not everyday that you see a 4'5 person clad in a black cloak and dawning a straw hat. Sakura walked aimlessly around the village, observing and absorbing all that she could. So far she had a pretty good layout for the village, now she needed to find the exam participants. She had about an hour before she's to meet with her team.

She sat on a bench and skimmed the crowd. All were adults and Sakura sighed. _'Inner this is so hard! Even if I do find someone, how am I going to get information on them?' _Inner gnawed on her lip, **'Umm...I dunno, this is a first for both of us.' **Sighing again Sakura took another look around and gave up. She stood with a huff and marched off to the dango shop she was going to meet her team at. She sat at the bar and ordered a plate of dango. She glanced around at the people in the shop.

They all appeared to be ninja. She noticed that they too were glancing at her. She sat straighter to make herself look more confident and thanked the lady for her dango. She began to nibble on it as she waited. Soon after her plate arrived her team walked in and took a seat next to her. Sakura restrained herself from moving to greet them. They ordered some dango and tea. "What have you got so far." Konan said as she looked at Pein.

Sakura glanced at her before looking around the shop again. "Not much. I have the layout for the village, but I haven't crossed any exam participants yet, nor have I found anything on the exam itself." Sakura began to eat the rest of her dango as the waitress came back. Pein made a grunting sound once the woman had left. Sakura shifted her gaze over to him. "Don't worry about the people so much, just find out about the exam and we'll take it from there." He said.

Sakura's eyes narrowed, "I can get the information." She mumbled angrily. Pein stiffened, "You don't have to," he said, "We'll get it ourselves." Sakura's fists clenched, "I'm part of this team too even if I'm not taking the exams. The least I can do is get some information for you guys." Pein narrowed his eyes and glared at his tea, Yahiko shifted nervously in his seat, and Konan quietly ate her dango. "Just do as you're told Sakura." Pein said. Sakura's eyes narrowed as she pulled out a couple bills and stood up, "In three days I'll have all the information you need." She hissed as she exited the shop.

Sakura looked around then set off to where the training grounds were located. Once there she sat down with a huff and hugged her knees to her chest. Inner was right, they did think she was weak. They didn't even trust her enough to get recon! Her eyes began to burn and she angrily dug the heels of her hands into her eyes. _'I will not cry. I __will not cry. I will not cry.' _She chanted in her mind. When she felt the burning disappear she took her hands off her eyes. **'Hey don't worry, we'll show them how kick ass we are once we finish our recon...' **

Sakura sighed, "Are you sure? We only have three days to do it." Sakura said. In her turmoil she didn't realise she was talking out loud. **'Sure I'm sure! Have I ever been wrong?'**Sakura frowned, "Yes, as a matter of fact you have been wrong. Remember when you told me that babies come from the moon, but then we found out that girls carry them in their belly. Then I asked you about how they got there and you said-"

**'Okay!' **Inner said, **'I've been wrong a couple of times... Still, I'm right most of the time.' **Sakura rolled her eyes, "Yeah, whatever." She pulled a flower and twirled it around, "So what are we going to do about recon?" Inner scratched her head, **'Umm...' **Sakura groaned, "You have no idea what to do, do you?" Inner shrugged, **'So what if I don't...?' **Sakura sighed, "I guess that means we'll just have to figure it out on our own huh?"

"Maybe you don't have to." Sakura stiffened when she heard the voice behind her. "Maybe I can help you." She quickly stood and whipped out her kunai. She blinked at the boy before her. He was an...odd color. "Who are you?" Sakura said studying his multi colored body. He smiled, "My name's Zetsu. **And I may be what you need.**"

* * *

Le gasp! Zetsu is here! What the friggin hell! Hope you all liked this! And I think this may have been the longest chapter I've ever written. Be prepared for more like it! I think I'm going to change the summary too, you guys. I want to keep the couple options open while I add more characters into the story. Especially since its just barely begun, who knows, maybe you might want Zetsu to be her man or another Akatsuki memeber! Anyways, please review. I love hearing what you have to say about the story and I would love to hear of any ideas you guys want to see happen in the story. I'm here to please you with my awesome writing skills! Till next we meet, Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	8. Chapter 8

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! The story is finally getting started! I've just introduced Zetsu as one of the first soon-to-be Akatsuki members! Now, let's see how he was recruited, shall we?

**Lungs: **Lol thank you for the enthusiastic review! I was hoping you'd like the scythe! I'm actually thinking of making it her main weapon! Yay Zetsu! That adorable cannibal plant guy doesn't get enough love!

**asdfu: **I'm glad you noticed! For the first few years I'm going to keep her on the borderline of mature and childish. But soon, in a major turning point, maturity will be more dominant in her personality. Oh, and major ass kicking will soon come!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Sakura stared at the boy in front of her warily. Where the hell had he come from? One minute she's alone talking to Inner, the next a boy just pops up behind her seemingly out of thin air! Not to mention his looks. He seemed to be around five years her senior, his skin tone was split down the middle, half stark white and the other half pitch black. His eyes were a strikingly yellow color, he had green, spiky hair, and had plant like appendages protruding from his shoulders. They stayed staring at each other for several moments.

Finally Sakura broke the silence, "Who are you?" The boy stared then said, "My name is Zetsu. **And I may be what you need with your spying problem.**" Sakura stared at him wide eyed. "Whoa! You have two different voices!" She cried. Zetsu blinked. "Yes I do... **Got a problem with it?**" Sakura shook her head, "Not at all! But why do you have two voices?" Again, Zetsu blinked at her."Umm...we'll you see, there are two of me. **Yeah, and we share the same body.**" Sakura nodded, "So you're like me!" She then quickly slapped her hand over her mouth. That wasn't supposed to come out! No one knew of Inner, and now she just told this stranger about her! _'Crap! Crap! Crap!'_

Zetsu stared at the panicking girl before him. She was weird. This definitely wasn't what he expected to happen when he talked to her. In fact, if he hadn't seen her pink hair when he went for a stroll around the forest surrounding The Mist Village he wouldn't have known she ever existed! After seeing her unique hair color, he decided to follow her to see where she would go. He had followed her all around the village and had witnessed her whispered conversation in the dango shop. She had left angry and stalked off to the training grounds where she kept herself from crying about her confrontation. Then she began to talk to herself.

Zetsu was shocked beyond belief about this. It was almost as if she were talking to another person. And this was the most shocking of all for him. Had he found another person like him? But wait, she only had one voice. And she definitely did not have any of his characteristics. If he didn't have his own second self, he would have believed that she was just talking to an imaginary friend. Maybe her second self was somewhere deep inside her? Maybe it was to far deep to surface as much as his has. When she mentioned her recon mission, it produced the perfect opportunity to talk to her.

After all, he was an exeptional spy. While talking to her he had hoped that her second self would intervene like his does, but no such thing happened. Then she claimed that he was like her. And this is where she began to be weird. Why on earth of she panicking? Because they were similar? He frowned at the thought. Just when he thought he had found someone that might accept him, it turned out she was like all the others. Disgusted with him. So he had a second self! Was that so horrible that people had to shun him?

He was about to turn away when she suddenly stared at him. He stared at her impassively, "**What are you looking at." **His other side snapped. She tilted her head to the side. "You said you have a second self right?" Zetsu frowned at her, "**Yeah so?**" She bit her lip, "Does that mean I'm normal?" Zetsu's frown slipped from his face. What...? "I mean," she quickly elaborated at his confused stare, "It's normal to have a second self? Because I have one and so do you." Slowly Zetsu shook his head, "No, its not normal at all." He stared wide eyed at her sorrowful expression."Oh...so I am a weirdo."

Zetsu crossed his arms, "**I'm offended by that! I'm not weird at all! I think that since I have a second self I'm awesome." **He blinked, "That also means you're awesome too." Sakura looked up at him hopefully, "Really...?" Hesitantly Zetsu nodded. A smile blossomed on Sakura's face and she enveloped Zetsu in a hug. "Thank you" She mumbled against his stomach. Zetsu smiled as he patted her head. Maybe she would accept him.

Sakura pulled away from Zetsu, "So...what were you saying about spying?" Zetsu smirked, "I may be able to help you with your recon. I'm an exceptional spy, simple recon is no problem for me." Sakura crossed her arms, "If that's true, then what reason do you have to help me?" Zetsu's smirk dropped and was replaced with a sorrowful expression. "My whole life I've been shunned because of my second self. You're the first person I've found that's like me. I want a friend..." He stared at the ground lost in his past.

**'Wow. That's deep...' **Sakura nodded in agreement. **'He's exactly what we need to show the others that we're able to be a ninja.' **Sakura cocked her head to the side, _'How so?' _Inner crossed her arms, **'Well first of all, we need connections, an outside alliance to help us. Or, if he joins the organization, someone loyal to us. So if we're ever in a bind, we'll know that he'll always help us.' **Sakura shuffled her feet, _'Is it right to use someone like that?' _Inner rolled her eyes, **'We're not going to use him. He's going to be our friend. That's what friends do, they help each other out.'**

Sakura blinked, _'Oh... So he'll be our friend?' _Inner nodded. _'Alright then!_' Sakura grinned at Zetsu, who stared back confused. "Let's be friends!" Sakura exclaimed. Zetsu stared at her wide eyed, "What?" Sakura's smile widened and she grabbed his hand, "Let's be friends!" She then began to pull him back into the village. Zetsu trailed after her and stared as she went in and out of hotels trying to find one to suit her tastes. And between talking to hotel owners she chatted about her life in Ame.

When she finally found a room she instantly took him up and set up her small room. It wasn't the best of places, but it would do for a couple of days. She sat cross legged on the futon and stared at him expectantly. When Zetsu didn't move Sakura patted the spot next to her. "Come on, sit so we can talk." Zetsu sat down next to her, "So...what now?" Sakura scratched her head, "I guess we figure out how all this recon is going to happen." Zetsu nodded, "Well, what kind of recon do you need?"

Sakura sighed, "I need to find out everything I can about the exam contestants. I need to know so that my team won't die in the exams and so that we can recruit some members into the organization." Zetsu turned to her, "What organization?" Sakura smiled, "Well my team just barely told me about it, but it's called Akatsuki. My team created it, they want to get rid of all the wars in the world. They want world peace."

Zetsu gaped, "**Damn. That's a big dream.**" Zetsu nodded in agreement with his other self. Sakura turned to Zetsu suddenly, "Do you want to join?" Zetsu shrugged, "I dunno...not many people like me." Sakura rolled her eyes, "Akatsuki will. The whole purpose of it is peace. That means no discrimination. I'm sure you'll fit in just fine." Zetsu rubbed the back of his neck, "I don't know..." Sakura sighed, "Fine. Think it over and tell me later. Right now I need to get the recon done." Zetsu stood up, "I'll get started right away." Before Sakrua could ask how, Zetsu melted into the floor.

Shocked Sakura jumped off the futon and patted the floor where he had melted into. "Zetsu! Zetsu where are you!" Inner grabbed her head, **'Oh my Kami! Where the hell did he go!' **Sakura growled at her, _'If I knew the answer to that would I be on the floor freaking out!' _Sakura heard a chuckle and stared at the floor scared. "Calm down Sakura," Zetsu said, "This is a special ability I have, it's the reason I'm such a great spy." Sakura's eye twitched, "Why didn't you tell me this before you disappeared into the floor?" Sakura heard another chuckle then Zetsu's head reappeared out of the floor, "**Because we wanted to see your reaction.**" Sakura took a deep breath and turned away from him.

"Whatever...just go do the stupid recon." Zetsu chuckled again then melted into the floor, "I'll see you later Sakura." Sakura waved him off, "Yeah, yeah whatever." Sakura flopped down onto the futon with a huff. "Now what do we do Inner?" **'Uhhh, read more of the fire scroll?'**Sakura's eyes lit up and she took the scroll out of her pack. She eagerly opened it to where she left off last time.

Step 1: Patience

You must never be to fast with fire. You must stay calm and collected when dealing with such a wild element. There is no easy way to control it. You must be patient and willing to endure the hardships of fire. Train yourself to be patient. By doing so you will be on the way to controlling fire.

Sakura frowned, _'Am I patient?' _Inner nodded, **'Your the most patient person I know. Let's skip to step 2!' **Sakura shrugged and continued to Step 2.

Step 2: Chakra Reserves

Controlling fire requires a great abundance of chakra. To aquire this chakra you must reach inside yourself and expand your chakra reserves. It is a slow process, but it is essential.

Sakura crossed her legs and closed her eyes. Reaching inside, she tapped into her chakra. She mentally sighed at the meager amount of chakra she had. With this amount there was no way she would be able to use fire. Taking a deep breath she unwound her chakra and slowly began to expand it. It was an odd sensation, pleasant yet not. As her chakra expanded she felt a light tingling coursing through out her body. Expanding to the point where it hurt, she began to re-wind it into coils.

Winding the significantly larger supply was hard. She couldn't wind it to big or it would burst, neither could she wind it to small or she would be unable to use it. It was painstakingly slow work, but Sakura was determined to finish it. She finally finished winding her chakra and fell onto the futon in an exhausted heap. _'Well...that was fun.' _Inner chuckled, **'Sure was.' **Sakura yawned and curled up into a ball, _'Night Inner.' _**'Night.'**

**o0o**

Sakura groaned and rolled over, trying to escape the glare of the sun. When she received no such relief she opened her eyes. She stared at the ceiling then sighed as she sat up. She walked to the bathroom and stared at her frizzy hair in the mirror. She turned on the shower and stripped her clothes before jumping in. She shivered at the cold temperture then sighed happily as the water got warmer. Squeezing out some shampoo, she quickly began to wash her hair. After doing so she put some unscented body wash on a wash cloth and began washing her body.

She winced when she began to wash her tender back. Reaching behind her, she softly prodded the large scars on her back. She bit back a cry at the sharp pain that laced up her spine at her prodding. Tears prickled at her eyes and Sakura angrily wiped them away and turned the water off. Stepping out the water she carefully wrapped herself into a towel. Running a brush through her hair, Sakura pulled it back in a low ponytail. Pulling on her black pants and putting on a red tank top Sakura brushed her teeth before leaving the bathroom.

Going to her bag she pulled out her weights and put on 25 lbs on her limbs. Strapping on her weapon pouch she threw on her cloak and set off to the training grounds. Once there she began her warm-ups. Stretching her limbs and and relaxing her body. Pulling out her weapon scroll Sakura bit her thumb and released the seal. Looking over her weapons Sakura decided on using the claws. After resealing the rest and placing the scroll back into her pouch Sakura equipped herself with the claws.

She swerved her arms to try and get the feel of the weapons. The added weight to her hands, she found, would throw off her swipes. _'I have to learn how to balance myself with these.' _Frowning she crouched down in a fighting stance and practiced her usual routine. After using the claws she found it easy to find her balance with them. After an hour she sat down for a 10 minute break. She studied her claws and smiled. They would certainly be a great surprise when fighting.

The claws appeared to be nothing more then hand guards. But by touching a small mechanism on her palm where the claw wrapped around her hand, the blades extended and could be used as a useful weapon. The sound of metal clashing alerted Sakura to others in the training grounds. Pulling the hood back over her head Sakura went to investigate. She found a team of three sparing. There were two boys with a single girl. They girl had a lithe form, she had brown hair pulled back in a high ponytail. The tallest boy had a bulky body and blond hair. The final boy was lean with black hair.

Sakura marveled at the quick and precise moves the three dealt. Sakura didn't know how long she watched the three but it must have been a long time. When they finally stopped Sakura was shocked to find that none seemed tired from their spar. They chatted happily as they gathered their weapons. The bulky boy said something and all three burst into laughter as they left the field.

Sakura sighed at the carefree team. They were amazing ninjas, that was for sure. Their bond with each other reminded Sakura of her own team, minus herself. Konan, Pein, and Yahiko had a bond together that Sakura knew would never break no matter what the three went through. And, she was sure, that after the exams the bond would become even stronger.

How were they supposed to be a team if they didn't include her? Was Sakura just the extra person on the team? Would she only be useful for recon? Sakura bit her lip at the thought. She wasn't even able to do recon right. She was having Zetsu get the information, not herself. Sakura sighed and left the field. Not in the mood to continue her physical training. She ate a quick meal then trudged up to her room and prepared herself to once again expand her chakra reserves.

The process was easier the second time around, but still time consuming. By the time she finished it was already late and Sakura was exhausted. Before falling asleep Sakura hoped that Zetsu would come back so that she would have someone to talk to. The next day came quick and Sakura at the lack of a second person in her room. How many people was Zetsu spying on?

Deciding to skip her physical training in order to work on her chakra reserves, Sakura delved inside herself. Her chakra supply had increased, but Sakura was certain that it would be a long while until they were at an appropriate level for her fire training. Her third expansion was an uncomfortable one. While expanding and recoiling Sakura came to the conclusion that she would have to space expanding her chakra farther apart. The pain from expanding it had came faster and harder for her.

Sakura guessed that it was because of her constant uncoiling and recoiling. The session left her exhausted and in pain. Sakura prayed that she didn't stunt her chakra with the extensive expansion. She layed on the futon and stared at the ceiling for a while, waiting for the pain to go away. When it finally did, it was already late at night. She fell asleep that night worried for herself, Zetsu, and her team.

When she awoke the next day she was still sore from expanding her reserves, but Sakura was happy that she was finally able to move again. She took a warm shower and strapped on all her gear before she realized what she was supposed to do today. Sakura groaned and smacked her forehead, what was she going to tell her team about 'her' recon? **'I guess we'll just have to tell them we didn't do jack.'**Sakura sighed, _'Thanks for the help.'_She left the hotel and made her way to the dango shop. It was empty and Sakura took a seat at the bar. After ordering she sat at the bar hoping that she would be able to think of something before her team arrived.

The waitress came with her order right when her team entered. Biting back a groan Sakura nibbled on her dango. They sat next to her silently and ordered their food. Once the waitress left Pein asked the dreaded question, "What did you find?"** 'We're screwed.' **Sakura sipped her tea hoping to buy some time. "Well," she mumbled, "I... Well I..." Pein's eyes narrowed, "You didn't get anything did you?" He didn't let her reply before saying, "I told you to forget about it. Now we have even less time to look these people up!" He said in a heated whisper.

Sakura's cheeks reddened in anger, "I did get it!" She said. "Oh yeah?" Pein said, "Then tell us, what did you find?" Sakura pursed her lips when the waitress came and smiled when she saw who entered the dango shop. "I got us a spy." Pein frowned, "A spy? Who?" Sakura smiled, "Zetsu, meet my team. Pein, Konan, and Yahiko." Her team whipped around and stared at the boy before them.

"Who is this person Sakura?" Konan asked. Zetsu sat down next to Sakura, "My name is Zetsu. **And we got all the information you need.**" Pein and the others stared at him shocked. Sakura smiled happily and offered Zetsu some of her dango and tea. He rejected the dango put sipped some of her tea. "So you're saying," Yahiko said, "That you found a member for Akatsuki and you finished the recon?"

Sakura frowned, "No. The recon is finished, but Zetsu doesn't know if he wants to join or not." Zetsu shook his head, "Actually I've decided to join. **We don't have anyhere to go anyway.**" Sakura turned to him surprised, "Really?" At his nod a wide smile blossomed on Sakura's face and she hugged him. There was a cough and Sakura released Zetsu looking at Pein, "About the recon..." Zetsu nodded and took out a small stack of papers from his cloak, "This is everything you need to know about the other contestants." Sakura placed some bills on the table, "See you guys after the exams." Then she and Zetsu left.

* * *

A short chapter I know. But I really wanted to get this out and see how you guys like where I'm going with the story. Please tell me all of your thoughts and any suggestions you may have for the story. And just to get it out, I'm thinking of making a crossover story with Naruto and Avatar the Last Airbender. I'm going to use the Sakura from my first story 'The Wolf Mistress'. I'd also like to see if you guys like this new crossover idea. Till next we meet. Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	9. Chapter 9

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! I really am starting to have a big passion for this story. I hope that I can keep it good for you all!

**asdf: **Yes Pein is being mean, but it's born out of his worry for her. Remember, she's still only about 9/10 years old. And right now, she's viewed as the younger sibling. They don't want anything bad to happen to her. And yes, who is the next Akatsuki member? Will he appear in this chapter? You'll have to read to find out! Oh my Bejeezus! I'm an avid Zutara shipper too! It just seemed so right, water and fire, close to the same age (not 113 years apart). But, what can you do? I heard there's going to be a second series to it. Something about the next Avatar (a girl) and Aang and Katara's son. I think the two are supposed to get together... o.0 Gross...

**Lungs: **Lol I love your reviews, they're so full of energy. And yes, as stated above her team is excluding her. But, as I've said, it's born out of worry for her. Hmmm, would Sakura make the entire organization loyal only to her? Only time will tell. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Sakura sat on her futon, starring into space. Now what was she to do? The exams wouldn't be over for another month or so and Zetsu was off doing whatever it was he did before she arrived in his life. She couldn't expand her chakra either, she'd done that yesterday and she did _not_ want a repeat of last week.

'**Maybe we can learn some new jutsus?' **Inner said thoughtfully. Sakura blinked, _'Jutsus…?' _Inner nodded, **'Yeah, I mean we don't know any right now. What kind of ninja doesn't know any jutsus?' **Sakura frowned, _'Where would we learn jutsus?' _Inner was silent for a moment, **'Uh…the library?'** Sakura jolted up from the futon. Of course! The library! After all, that was where her whole ninja career began!

Sakura threw her cloak on and ran out the hotel. She slipped into the shadows of the alleys and quickly found her way to the library. It was a tall building and inside was even larger. Dozens of shelves crowded it. There were spiral staircases that lead both up and down stairs. The woman at the counter didn't so much as glance at Sakura as she entered the building. She just continued to flip through the book she was reading.

Besides the woman at the counter, the building seemed to be entirely vacant. Deciding to first go downstairs and work her way up, Sakura walked to the stairs and made her way down. The lower levels of the library had a musky scent that could only be found where an abundance of old scrolls lay. It was dark and slightly damp on the bottom floor. Sakura browsed the shelves until she found one scroll that caught her eye.

It was a large scroll with the same symbol Jiraya-sensei had worn on his forehead protector. Sakura sat on the floor with the scroll in her lap. She took her hood off so as not to restrict her vision and opened the scroll. Sakura blinked at its contents. Shadow clones? Elemental clones? Illusionary clones? Transformation? What were these jutsus?

The diagrams on the scroll appeared to be relatively simple ones, though they did require a large amount of chakra. The simplest of the group appeared to be the illusionary clone and transformation. She read over the amount of chakra needed and the appropriate hand signs for them before standing up to attempt them. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then quickly went through the signs for a clone while imagining herself.

She felt the air around her shimmer then nothing. Cracking an eye open she gasped. In front of her was an exact copy of herself. It stood still as Sakura walked around it, inspecting it. Sakura stared at her clone in the eyes and was slightly shocked to find nothing there, just an eternal blankness. Reaching a handout Sakura attempted to touch its face, but her hand went straight through it. Small ripples dispersed from where her hand touched the clone, and then it began to blink in and out until it finally disappeared.

Slowly she let her hand fall back to her side. _'I…I actually did it….' _Sakura stood stunned for a moment more before Inner let out a loud 'whoop'. **'Fuck yeah! We did it! Our first jutsu! On our first try! Beat that Yahiko!' **Inner did a little victory dance before pumping her fist in the air. **'On to jutsu number two!' **Sakura rolled her eyes at Inner's enthusiasm but couldn't stop the giddy feeling bubbling in her stomach. She may actually be able to catch up to her team!

She eagerly grabbed the scroll and was about to try the transformation technique before a though struck her, how would she tell if the transformation was a success? Nibbling on her lip Sakura finally decided to hold that jutsu off until Zetsu was with her.

She scanned the scroll for another jutsu and found the Shadow Clone. This jutsu required not only a lot of chakra, but a lot of chakra control or else she would easily deplete her chakra supply by attempting it. Sakura scratched the side of her head as she examined the diagram. It was near identical to the other clone jutsus.

But unlike an illusionary clone, more chakra was needed to solidify it. But, it was easier to make compared to the elemental clones, where you needed a specific element to create it. Putting her hands together Sakura made the single seal required for the jutsu and concentrated.

She imagined herself just as she did for the ordinary clone, but now she imagined it more compact. She imagined that instead of her hand going through it, when she touched it she would feel flesh. The skin would be pale like her's and warm. Its hair would be her vibrant color and loose. Most of all, it would have feelings. It would not be an empty shell.

There was a loud pop and a plume of smoke appeared before Sakura. Sakura watched eagerly as the smoke dispersed to reveal another clone of Sakura. She reached her hand out and blinked as the clone reached out with its hand too. Their fingertips touched and Sakura's eyes widened. She actually did it! Wait…

Sakura peered into the clone's eyes and was happy to see a fierce fire in it. Sakura jumped up with an excited yell. "Inner I did it! I really did it!" She cried. **'Yay! We did it! We did it! We really, really did it!' **Sakura stopped jumping and stared at her clone happily. "So…." The clone said with a smile, "What should I do first boss?" Sakura let out a giggle before tapping her chin with her hand in thought.

"Well….I guess you can go and read some more scrolls. That way we learn twice as more jutsus then we normally would learn!" Sakura said. The clone saluted, "Hai! I'll get right to it boss!" Then the clone jogged down the aisle and began to read scrolls. Sakura bit her lip to keep her giggles contained. Turning back to the scroll Sakura rolled it up and searched for a new one.

**o0o**

Sakura fell into her futon exhausted. After hours of reading and experimenting with the jutsus she and her clone found in the library, Sakura finally decided to call it quits. When she dispersed her clone Sakura was hit with an enormous surge of knowledge that her brain slowly cataloged and saved. Right after the knowledge hit her, a wave of exhaustion fell upon her.

Sakura groaned when it happened. The downfall to Shadow Clones was that whatever exhaustion it felt would immediately be transferred to her when it was released. Sakura was amazed that she was even able to return to the hotel before collapsing. Not to mention her low chakra supply. By experimenting on those jutsus, most of which took her multiple tries to complete unlike the clones, had seriously drained her chakra supply.

The physical and chakra exhaustion caused a terrible headache to form for Sakura. She wished it would go to hell. Then she groaned when it pulsed and caused her more discomfort. '_Maybe a nap will help.' _She thought tiredly. Yeah, a nap should help. Shutting her eyes Sakura fell instantly asleep.

**o0o**

Zetsu stared at Sakura's sleeping form. He had come to see her because he felt guilty for leaving her for so long. But she was asleep….at 4. He scratched his head, no what was he supposed to do? He sighed and patted her head, "Sleep well Sakura." Then he turned to leave. But a hand shot out and held his wrist firmly. He blinked and turned back to Sakura whose eyes were open just a crack.

"Don't leave me alone…" She said. Zetsu stared at her a moment in contemplation then sighed. Sakura smiled and scooted over on the futon. Zetsu lay down on the spot she made for him and stiffened when he felt a small nudge on his shoulder. "Can these go away…?" Sakura asked sleepily. Zetsu shook his head, "No…they're permanent." She made a snuffling sound and patted his appendages. "Okay then… Night Zetsu…" Then she fell back asleep. Zetsu rolled over to stare at her. She was such a strange girl. "Night Sakura…" Then he too fell asleep.

**o0o**

Three weeks. Twenty-one days. 504 hours. 30240 minutes and 33…34 seconds have passed with no contact from her team whatsoever. Sakura was pissed. There was only one week left for exams and from what Zetsu had told her they should have contacted her by now. But no. They were off being the happy little team they are and excluding her like they always have before. Well Sakura was now officially sick of it.

She should have been in the exams with them! Did they not trust her enough? Was that the problem? Or was she just so useless, such a burden, that they couldn't afford to take her along? Well guess what, Sakura was going to show them a thing or two when they get back next week. She was going to make them regret not taking her. Now, how to do that?

She looked around her room before her eyes fell onto her scrolls and her eyes widened. Of course! The scrolls! She'd been training for this past month for those scrolls! Jumping off her futon Sakura tucked the scrolls into her weapon pouch. She put the last of her weights on bringing it up to 50 lbs a limb. Sakura sighed, she would have to buy more weights, her body, since beginning her training, had started to quickly adapt to additional weights.

Writing a quick note for Zetsu Sakura left it on her bed telling him where she was going. She couldn't have him thinking she was kidnapped of something. She grabbed her cloak and left her room. She was running down the stairs while putting her cloak on when she bumped into someone. The person made an 'oof' sound when she collided with their stomach and grabbed her when she nearly fell down the stairs.

Sakura quickly pushed her arms into the cloak and let out a steam of apologies. The person chuckled at her, "No problem but what's with the rush?" Sakura looked up at him, and was amazed at his height. The man (or was it boy?) was friggin' tall! And his skin was a pale blue color with his hair being a darker shade of blue. His eyes were wide and pitch black. He had unusual marking on his neck almost like gills… And he had the biggest sword she had ever seen in her life.

Pushing the thoughts away Sakura answered his question, "I'm going training!" The boy, Sakura decided that he was in fact a boy and not a man despite his height and obviously ripped muscles, chuckled at her, "A little thing like you? Really? Well have fun." Then he continued on up the stairs. "Hey!" Sakura said and he stopped to look back at her, "My name's Sakura Haruno." He smiled reveling sharp teeth, "I'm Kisame Hoshigaki." Sakura gave him her own smile, "I'll see you later Kisame!" Then she left the hotel.

She ran down the now familiar streets and alleyways and found herself in the vacant training fields. Pulling open the fire scroll Sakura studied the diagrams on it. This was by far the most complicated jutsu she had ever seen. She would have to start with an already made fire before she would be able to create her own. Sakura cleared away a small patch of grass and grabbed two kunai. Slashing the blades together, small sparks fell onto the grass she laid down to burn and caught fire. Quickly running to get some sticks Sakura broke them and laid them onto the fire.

When she knew it wouldn't go out, Sakura cleared away more grass as a safety precaution then stood. Scanning the scroll she memorized the seals and quickly went through them. Then she pointed to the fire and a small ball of it lifted out and rose until it was seated just above her left palm. Sakura stared at the fire amazed. The warmth from it wasn't as intense as she thought it would be it was actually very soothing. She looked down at the scroll then did as they picture showed. She lifted her right hand and set it vertical from her left. Concentrating some chakra in her right hand, she imagined her chakra intertwining with the fire's chakra. Then, she slowly moved her hands and watched as they fire stretched between her hands.

She stopped when there was a small half circle around her. Looking back at the scroll she bit her lip. The next step was putting her hand into the fire and enduring the burn while familiarizing her chakra with the quick paced pulse of the fire's own. Taking a few calming breaths Sakura thrust her hand into the fire. The pain was incomprehensible. Sakura cried out and tears leaked from her eyes and she let her chakra pulse out of her palm, mixing it with the fire. At the feel of her chakra the fire flamed up and turned blue and coursed up her arm.

Sakura's eyes widened in terror; what was going on? Was the fire rejecting her? Was she going to be burned alive? Sakura yelled a bloodcurdling scream as her entire right arm was engulfed in flames. _'So this is the end.'_ She thought, as sobs racked her body, _'At least my life wasn't as horrible as it could have been.' _Sakura fell to the floor as her am continued to burn. The last she saw before she blacked out was white fire then she was dead to the world.

* * *

Oh my bejeezus! Two short as hell chapters in a row! I'm sorry you guys! But it just felt like I should stop it right there. Next chapter, I promise, will be longer. So tell me your thoughts. Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	10. Chapter 10

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! I'm now on spring break for 2 ½ weeks! Maybe I'll finally be able to get some updates out! And maybe I'll get my sequel/crossover for 'The Wolf Mistress'! Cross your fingers!

**asdf: **Yeah, I didn't want to rush Sakura's strengthening process. I want to show her grow into a kunoichi and not just thrust a magically strong character onto you guys. And what is going to happen next? Who will find Sakura? Let's see shall we.

**Yoi no Chi: **Aww, thank you! I SHALL KEEP THE YOUTHFULLNESS CHI-CHAN! *strikes a Gai/Lee pose with a tooth sparkle*

**Hehe: **I'm happy to know you like it!

**xx-Destiny-xx: **Hearing that you love it makes me ecstatic! Let's me know I'm doing my job right!

**Lungs: **Yeah, I've been thinking about the color situation… Well see what happens ne? Yes! ZetsuxSakura! I've got to practice my romance somewhere, why not start with this lovely couple? Especially when more competition arrives! ...wait… I wasn't supposed to tell you that….oh poop…

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Pain. Blistering pain. That was all Sakura could think of because that was all she could feel. Every sense was clouded to accommodate it. Every fiber of her being was honed in on it. There was no way to escape it. The horrible burning just wouldn't leave. Wouldn't lessen. It just increased until her whole body, her whole being, was consumed with it. Clouding her mind and deteriorating her will to live.

As the feeling of despair reared its ugly head, another emotion surfaced. Confusion. Why she was still alive? Surely one would die from this type of trauma. So why was she still alive to experience it? Another strong wave of pain rolled over her, making her cry out, hot tears rolled down her cheeks. Why? Why must she endure this pain? Hadn't she been hurt enough? Why?

Her right arm hurt the most. Where the fire had started. What had gone wrong? She did everything the scroll had said. Was she rejected? Was the price of rejection her death? But if that was true, then why was it taking so long to die? Was she sentenced to this torture for eternity? Again she asked, why? The questions swirled around and around Sakura's mind, begging to be answered. Sakura hoped that they would be answered.

**o0o**

Zetsu stood ramrod straight once the scream reached his ears. There was no mistaking it, Sakura was in trouble. Melting into the floor he instantly went to Sakura's hotel room. From what he could see there was no sign of intrusion or any evidence of a battle. So where was Sakura? From the corner of his eye he could see something fluttering on her futon. He snatched the piece of paper up and read what it said.

_Zetsu,_

_If you're reading this I haven't returned from my training yet. Please don't freak out. Its simple training and I should be done in a couple hours. If you really need to see me, come find me at the training grounds._

_Love Sakura._

Folding the paper and putting it into his pocket, Zetsu melted into the floor and went to the training grounds as fast as he could. Once there he noticed smoke coming from a distant part of the grounds. Fearing the worst he ran to where the smoke was coming from and was relieved to see Sakura. But the odd thing was; she didn't appear to be hurt. Although it was rather odd that the smoke was coming from her right arm.

He went to kneel beside her and let out a small sigh of relief. She wasn't bleeding but her breath was coming out uneven and she had tear tracks on her face. He put a hand on her arm and was shocked to find it warm. Zetsu picked her up bridal style and left the grounds after making sure he had all of her belongings. "**What the hell happened to her?**" Zetsu shrugged to his other self, to worried to speak.

He didn't know what happened to her and he wasn't sure why anyone would want to harm the weird little girl that was his friend. Before Zetsu could open the door to Sakura's hotel room; the door directly across from her room opened and a big blue boy stepped out. Once the boy saw the limp pink haired girl in Zetsu's arms he became instantly concerned.

"Hey, what happened to Sakura?" Zetsu blinked and briefly wondered when Sakura made friends with the kid before answering, "I'm guessing it was a training accident, though she doesn't appear to be hurt." The boy sighed, "I knew something was going to happen when she told me she was going training… When do you think she'll wake up?" Zetsu shrugged and opened the door to Sakura's room. "You are welcome to come and wait with me if you're worried." Then Zetsu went into the room leaving the boy to close the door behind him. After a moment of hesitation the kid followed.

Zetsu gently laid Sakura onto the futon and brushed her hair away from her face. She wasn't flushed, so she didn't have a fever. He checked her pulse and found that it was fast. Sakura frowned and a look of pain crossed her features. Zetsu bit his lip, what was wrong? Sweat trickled down Sakura's head and Zetsu got a wash cloth to wipe it away.

The boy watched from his position at the wall and Zetsu spoke to him without taking his eyes off Sakura, "You said she told you she was going training. When was this?" The boy thought a moment then said, "About an hour ago." Zetsu frowned, what kind of training was she doing that would lead her to this state so quickly?

"How do you know Sakura?" Zetsu asked. The boy sighed, "I just met her today we bumped into each other just before she left to train." Zetsu sighed; of course she would make friends with a boy she bumped into, that was Sakura. Though he couldn't really say anything bad about that; he had practically stalked her before they became friends.

"Who are you?" The boy asked. "My name is Zetsu." He said while wiping away more of Sakura's sweat. It was silent for a moment before the boy said his own name, "I'm Kisame Hoshigaki. Is there anything I can do to help with her?" Zetsu shook his head, "All we can do is wait until she wakes up. **Whenever the hell that may be.**"

**o0o**

The pain, the pain, why was it taking so long to kill her? Was she such a screw up that she couldn't even die right? Now that, that was just sad. The pain receded, if only just a fraction and Sakura opened her eyes. Well, this was an odd place. She was laying down on grass, which wouldn't be surprising if the sky wasn't red. A sudden color change in nature was never a good sign.

Sakura sat up and looked around. Okay, everything else looked normal…wait a minute. Wasn't she supposed to be at the training grounds? In the Hidden Mist Village? So why was she in a valley and not just any valley, her valley. That was in Amegakure. A weeks worth of travel _away _from her current location…er…supposed location. Hmm…either she was going crazy, or she finally died.

She heard a snort then, **'Kami you sure are centered on death aren't you?' **Whirling around she saw the owner of that familiar voice. Inner waggled her fingers, **'Miss me?' **Sakura ran toward Inner and stopped when she was directly in front of her, "Inner! Where are we?" Inner rolled her eyes, **'Isn't it obvious we're in your mind.' **Sakura blinked, "My mind…?" Inner gave her a you-sure-are-stupid look, **'Uh…yeah. How else would you be able to talk to me face to face unless we weren't in here?' **She said tapping the center of Sakura's forehead.

Sakura frowned and rubbed her forehead, "What am I doing here?" Inner shrugged, **'I dunno, after you were knocked out you were placed in here with me.' **Sakura scratched her head, "Anything else happen when I came in here?" Inner nodded, **'Oh loads, like the sky, it stopped raining and turned red. Oh and when you came your arm was on fire! It was AMAZING! I never knew fire could be white! And it was all 'whoosh!' and I was all like 'ahhhh! Outer's on fire! But look at the pretty colors!' And then the fire went away and you woke up.' **Inner said with various hand gestures that nearly smacked Sakura in the face.

Sakura's eye twitched, "Gee, I'm so happy to see how worried about my arm being on FIRE!" Inner just waved her hand in Sakura's face. **'Calm down! We're in your mind remember? You can't get hurt in here.' **Sakura frowned, "Uh…yeah I can. Ever heard of GENJUTSU! Or how about MENTAL DISORDERS!" Inner scoffed, **'First of all, yeah I have heard about those things. Second, we're not in a genjutsu nor are we mentally ill.' **

Sakura smacked her forehead exasperated, "That's not what I-!" Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath, "Okay… Whatever! Just tell me why I'm here and how I get out." Inner let out a nervous laugh, **'I would love to help you but the thing is I don't know how to get you out.' **Sakura's eyes snapped open, "What! How do you not know how to leave? You freaking live here!"

Inner put her hands up defensively, **'It's not my fault! I may live here but that doesn't mean I know everything about our mind! I can't even surface like Zetsu's other self! How can you expect me to get you out if I don't even know how to get out myself?' **Sakura ran her hand through her hair anxiously, "Alright, alright, I'm sorry. I'm just a little freaked out." Inner snorted, **'You and me both buddy.' **Sakura shot Inner a glare then looked around at her surroundings, "Why does my mind look like the valley?"

Inner shrugged also staring at their surroundings, **'Dunno. My best guess is that it's because it's really the only safe place we have besides the house. Also, this is only one part of your mind. I don't usually leave here though,' **She shifted her attention back to Sakura, **'Our mind can be a very scary place.' **Sakura blinked and stared at Inner, "Really?" Inner nodded.

Sakura nibbled on her lip, "Maybe….maybe we need to go searching around." Inner spun on Sakura, eyes wide, **'What! Are you serious? I don't want to leave here! This is the only safe place!' **Sakura turned to her, "What other choice do we have? If I stay here, wouldn't I be comatose in the outside world?" Inner looked close to crying, **'Bu-bu… Oh alright then, just, just don't leave me alone.' **Sakura nodded and grasped Inner's hand firmly in her own.

Inner took a steadying breath, **'Well, here we go.' **Then the valley slowly started to melt away. Sakura gasped as she looked around startled. Replacing the valley was a dark and dank hallway. "Where are we?" Sakura asked quietly. Inner grimaced, **'We're where all of our memories are stored.' **Sakura paled, "Wh-what? Every memory?" Inner squeezed Sakura's hand, **'Every single last one.' **Then she tugged Sakura's hand and the two walked down the hallway until they stopped at a door.

Inner placed her hand on it and turned to Sakura, **'Do you want to go in? We can leave and check somewhere else.' **After a moment of hesitation Sakura shook her head, "No. This may actually be good for us." Inner frowned, **'Whatever you say…remember, just say the word and I can get us out quick okay.' **Sakura nodded then Inner pushed the door open and they walked inside.

The room itself was not very intimidating; on the contrary it was rather plain. However, once they walked a foot inside the room Sakura was bombarded with memories. She gasped as she saw herself, just a couple hours earlier, lift the fire. She saw the pain that crossed her features. She witnessed her self burn, the fire change colors, saw herself collapse with a cry. Then it re-winded to another time, to when she met Zetsu. Her wary expression soon replaced with a smile, then herself dragging him out the fields in search of a hotel.

She witnessed these memories; it was as if she was a silent specter. She couldn't keep herself from feeling like a stalker. Following herself around, watching every memory she had made. It was weird. Then Sakura saw what she wished she could forever forget. That time, all those years ago. Where she had received her ugly scars that marred her back.

Sakura and Inner watched a much younger version of herself (age 5) approach a small house on the outskirts of Amegakure. She silently pushed opened the front door and tiptoed inside. Taking care to not make a sound as she passed the unmoving body on the couch surrounded by empty sake bottles. She froze when the body suddenly sat up mumbling incoherent words until it fell back to the couch with a loud snore, snuggling the large sake bottle in its hands.

Sakura's lip trembled when she saw the face. The familiar cropped brown hair, the strong jaw with a single crescent scar on his chin. The tan, muscular frame of a man who worked long, laborious days. Sakura could remember the emerald eyes that hid behind the eye lids of a man she once loved. Her father. After a moment of watching her father, young Sakura continued on farther into the house.

She approached a door where the muffled sounds of sobbing were heard. Opening the door, young Sakura entered the room and walked toward the quivering ball on the bed. "Okaa-san," Young Sakura whispered, "Don't cry Okaa-san. I brought you some dango." She opened a small brown bag and retrieved a stick of dango. Her mother stopped quivering for a moment and sat up, pushing off the blankets covering her.

Tired brown eyes stared at younger Sakura. It seemed to take her a moment to recognize her daughter then her eyes began to tear up again. With a cry her mother collapsed onto the bed with renewed sobs racking her body. Younger Sakura set the dango on the desk near the bed then climbed on the bed next to her grief stricken mother. She rubbed circles on her back and asked her mother to stop crying, which only made the woman's wails louder.

Sakura's eyes burned with tears. It hurt to relive watching her mother cry. It hurt even more to remember why her parents were in such a state. The day of her fifth birthday, her family had decided to go out. A rare treat for the Haruno family. Her father had claimed that turning five was an important part of Sakura's life. So together she, her parents, and her older sister Akemi had gone into Amegakure for a day of fun. They had spent the day laughing and overall having a great time, that is, until they began to head back home.

Sakura and her sister where far ahead of their parents, holding hands and giggling about their fun day. Her parents watched them from behind fondly. Sakura remembered her sister's large emerald eyes, her long silky brown hair, much like their mothers. The tinkling laugh her sister had. A genius in many ways; from cooking to inventing new contraptions to help her father. Her sister was a beautiful girl for her young age of 15. Sakura knew that she was her parent's pride and joy. Smart and beautiful. The perfect daughter.

Sakura never hated her sister for it. She was her hero in every aspect of the word. Nothing could tear her from the high pedestal Sakura had envisioned her at. They were nearly at their home when it happened. A boy roughly the same age as her sister jumped out of the bushes. Her sister tensed when she saw him. "Yukio," Her sister growled, "What do you want?"

He gave her sister a withering look, brushing his black hair from his eyes, "You know what I want." Her sister sneered at him, "I already told you no. Now leave me alone." Yukio's eyes narrowed and he reached behind himself, unsheathing a previously hidden sword, "You'll regret saying no to me." He said. Her sister's eyes widened and she grabbed Sakura fearfully. "Oh no…" She mumbled. The boy began to walk toward them and Akemi stared at Sakura terrified, "Run." When Sakura didn't move her sister pushed her back, "Run Sakura! Run!" But before Sakura could move a pain filled scream erupted from Akemi.

Akemi stumbled a few steps turning to see the boy. He brandished his now bloodied sword emotionlessly. Gritting her teeth Akemi growled, "You leave my sister alone you hear! Do whatever you wish to me, she has nothing to do with this!" Yukio stared at Sakura as if he just noticed she was there, "Well I can't very well leave any witnesses now can I?" Akemi's eyes widened as he took a step toward her younger sibling. "NO!" She ran forward and tackled him. The boy grunted and tossed her off of himself, she landed before Sakura.

Anger flashed in his eyes as he strode purposefully toward them, "I'm going to kill you! Both of you!" Akemi grabbed Sakura and tucked her small body against herself just as the sword descended, slicing more of her back. She cried and held onto her sister tighter, shielding her from to boy. A shout was heard and the boy cursed, Akemi and Sakura's parents were running toward them, hearing their daughter's cry.

He gave Akemi one last deep slash then ran into the forest. Akemi cried and looked down at Sakura. "Are you okay?" Sakura nodded, her own tears spilling over her eyes. Akemi smiled, "That's good. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you ever got hurt." She drew in a shuddering breath, "I think it's time for me to leave now Sakura." Sakura blinked at her sister confused, "What do you mean onee-chan?" Another shuddering breath, "I'm dying imouto. This is the last you'll see of me. Remember, I love you." Then she closed her eyes with a smile, her breathing stopped and she fell limp on Sakura.

"Onee-chan?" Sakura nudged her sister, "Onee-chan wake up. Wake up onee-chan. Wake up!" Her sister's body fell off of her at her nudging. Frantically, Sakura shook her sister. "Onee-chan!" Her tears fell faster, "Wake up onee-chan!" A pool of blood began to form around Sakura and her sister. "Onee-chan!" Finally realizing it was no use Sakura hugged her sister, her small body convulsed with sobs. Blood stained her shirt and pants, smeared along her face arms and legs, her hair clumped up from it.

That's what her parents found when they finally caught up to them. Her mother let out a cry and collapsed next to Akemi. "My baby!" She cried, sobs tumbling out of her mouth. Her father pulled Sakura from her sister and fell to his knees next to his wife. Her mother stroked her sister's face, "Oh my poor baby!" As she sobbed her father turned to her, eyes glistening with tears, "Who did this?" He roared. Sakura shook with fear. "Who did it?" He yelled at her. Sobs constricted Sakura's throat and she was unable to answer. Her father glared at her then turned to his first child, his tears bubbling over.

They cried for hours. A week later her sister was buried. Her family was never the same again. Her mother was reduced to nothing but a quivering ball of tears and sorrow, so consumed in her grief was she. Sakura's father blamed her for her sister's death. He turned to drinking to drown out his pain. He would slap and beat her in his anger and grief, ranting about how awful she was for being the cause of her sister's death. Sakura took it all without a peep, knowing he didn't really mean it, he was just so sad he couldn't control his emotions.

Six months later and this was where she was at. Tiptoeing around her house and trying to feed her mother when she was supposed to be feeding her. That night, her father's grief took a turn for the worst. He entered Sakura's room with a pain filled face, a bloody butcher knife in his hand. Sakura stared at him quietly, terrified. "It's your fault she's gone." He said. "You deserve this." Then he butchered her back, the same way the boy butchered her sister's back. Then he killed himself. Thinking she would eventually die from blood loss, he had already killed her mother.

But miraculously, she had survived. Stumbling her way into Amegakure before collapsing. A ninja found her and rushed her to the hospital. They healed her back but she was forever stuck with the scars. Her parent's bodies were removed from the house and buried. She never went back to the house again.

Hot tears rolled down Sakura's cheeks, shutting her eyes at the memories. Her back throbbed in remembrance of that night. When she opened her eyes again they were back at the valley. Inner stood silently beside her, her own tears coursing down her cheeks. They stared at each other a moment and Inner sniffled, releasing her hand, **'I think its time for you to wake up now…' **Sakura's brow furrowed then Inner began to fade away. Sakura's eyes opened.

She saw two faces in front of her. One black and white, the other blue. Both concerned. Her lip trembled and more tears fell down her face. She covered her face with her hands sobbing uncontrollably. Zetsu looked at Kisame scared; he didn't know how to deal with a crying girl. Kisame placed his sword next to the wall then hoisted Sakura into his arms. Her sobs grew louder and she buried her face in his chest. He smoothed her hair out and rubbed her back, rocking her back and forth silently. "Onee-chan…" She cried, clutching to Kisame desperately. The boys exchanged looks then looked to the crying girl. It was a long while before she fell asleep. Kisame held her throughout the night and Zetsu never left. Both were worried about their small pink haired friend.

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Once again, not a very long chapter. I guess I'm just not very good at that. I teared up making this. Gosh, I'm so emotional! Stupid teenage hormones! Stupid periods! Anyways I hoped you all liked the chapter. Please tell me what you thought. I really would love to hear them. Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	11. Chapter 11

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! I just have to say, you all are turning me into a review whore! I just can't get enough of all of your sweet reviews!

**Little-bad-Angel: **Yes, Sakura's teammates really are morons right now. Let's see what happens when they meet yet another stray boy Sakura some how came up with in this chapter!

**DNAyres: **Thank you! I didn't want to just have Sakura in Akatsuki and become strong just to be strong. I didn't want to do that because it's already so played out with her in Team 7 and I don't want to be a biter. Who knows, she may or may not get her revenge, it all depends on how the story plays out.

**Lungs: **Yes! Death to Child Abusers! Hmm, maybe that'll happen, though maybe it won't. Keep reading to find out!

**Yoi no Chi: **Well, I do try my best to make it awesome. Yes, I too am sad at doing that to Sakura. I honestly had no idea I was going to do it! It just sort of came out while I was writing, I'm glad it did though!

**asdf: **Oh, I know! I have the same Sakura-complex! Check out my profile. It's stated in bold leaders at the top of the page. But I'm happy you liked Akemi!

**kttykimi: **Here's the update!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

'**So,' **Inner said, **'how are we going to greet them?' **Sakura frowned and rolled over, _'What do you mean?' _Inner rolled her eyes, **'The exams are done and over with. How are we going to greet our team?' **Sakura blinked, _'Oh, that's right. They're supposed to come back aren't they…' _She stared at the wall then slowly sat up. After checking to make sure everything was in her pack she left the room. She knocked on Kisame's door and didn't have to wait long as he opened the door.

"Hey Sakura, what's up?" He said once he saw her. She shrugged, "I just came to say I'm leaving. My team finished the exams and should be here later. We're going back to Amegakure." Then she spun on her heel and descended the stairs. Kisame sputtered a moment before running back inside his room to grab his sword and pack. He found her giving the key back to her room. "Hey wait a minute! I'm going with you!" He chucked his key to the hotel owner and followed her out.

She looked up at him as they walked to the training grounds. "Why are you coming?" He gave her a toothy smile, "Zetsu told me about your little club and I want in." She blinked. "You do?" He nodded, "Yeah it seems like a good cause. And it gives me some purpose in life." She nodded. They arrived at the training fields and Kisame looked around, "So…who are we meeting here?" Sakura dropped to the ground, "My team and Zetsu." He scratched his head and sighed.

Ever since last week, Sakura had become withdrawn. Her animated chattering ceased to exist and a sad look replaced her once cheerful eyes. "I see that they aren't here yet." Zetsu's voice called from behind them. Sakura turned to look at him, "Yeah…" Then she turned back around and began sharpening her weapons. The two boys looked at each other. Kisame shrugged and Zetsu sighed.

Two hours later Sakura's team finally arrived. They had an early warning about her team's arrival. Their laughing was heard before they were even in sight. Once her team caught sight of her they ran forward to greet her. "Hey squirt!" Yahiko yelled. Sakura glanced up from her sharpening, "We made chunin squirt! Isn't that great?" She blinked then nodded. As she began to repack her equipment her team stared at her confused. Yahiko's grin fell and he looked to his friends. Pein's brow furrowed and he knelt beside Sakura, "Hey, are you okay Sakura?"

Sakura nodded and stood up, swinging her pack onto her shoulders, "Are we leaving now?" Pein blinked at her. Konan stepped forward, "Sakura, did something happen while we were gone?" Sakura's eyes went glossy, "No." She said turning around, "Nothing happened. Nothing important anyway. Let's go." Then she began to walk away. Konan's mouth opened then closed, she was at a loss for words. Yahiko pointed at Kisame. "Since when could sharks walk?" Kisame shot him a glare, "Since they became infinitely smarter then your dumbass." Then he trailed after Sakura.

Yahiko bristled and pointed a finger at the blue boy's retreating back, "Who the hell is he!" Pein shrugged. "He's wants to be part of the organization. Sakura found him." Zetsu said then he too began to leave the training grounds. "Something happened while we were gone." Konan said after a moment of silence. Pein nodded in agreement, "We have to find out what."

The trip back to Amegakure was uneventful. Through out the whole trip Sakura was silent. Tension rose between Kisame and Yahiko. Pein would glare at Zetsu accusingly. Zetsu's dark side would grumble about eating Pein in the middle of the night, 'no one notice', he would say. Konan made a month's worth of origami because of her worry of her 'little sister'. As Amegakure came into view Yahiko finally lost his patience, "Alright fish face! You want to go? Come on!" A rumbling laugh erupted from Kisame, "You don't want to mess with me boy. You won't win."

Yahiko's face reddened, "I don't care! All I know is that ever since you came Sakura's been depressed!" Sakura raised her head at the mention of her name. Kisame glared at Yahiko, "Don't go around accusing people of things you have no idea about, boy. You'll find yourself in deep water." Yahiko shot him his own glare, "Then explain to me why Sakura is so depressed! Why won't she look at us?"

"Maybe because you three left her." Pein, Konan, and Yahiko spun to look at Zetsu. "What do you mean?" Pein said. Zetsu crossed his arms, "Exactly what I said. You three left her. If I hadn't found her when you three arrived in Mist, for that whole month you three were taking the exams she would have been left alone." Surprise flitted across their features as they realized this.

Yahiko puffed out his cheeks, "Well…what else were we supposed to do? Take her with us? No way!" Sakura tensed when she heard this and she stared at her team. "The exams are dangerous and Sakura had no place in them." Konan said. "She would have been hurt." Pein said quietly. "Yeah! She doesn't even know any jutsus!" Yahiko said.

Sakura frowned at her team; they never tried to help her learn anything. They just told her what to do. They didn't even want her to join them when she first met them. They continued to spew their thoughts about her to her newest friends. While Kisame and Zetsu continued to defend her. "She would have been useless in the exams!"

Anger flashed in her eyes and she clenched her fists, "ENOUGH!" She shouted. The five turned to stare at her, surprised at her outburst, "I'm tired of your squabbling! I'm weak! I get it! But do you have to yell about it for the whole world to hear? And so what if I've been quiet for this past week? It's not like you three cared about me in the first place!" She said jabbing a finger at her team. "Three years and I finally find out how you guys see me! Well alright then! I don't care! I'm going home now and you guys can come if you want."

Then she stalked off toward Amegakure. Kisame blinked, "Whoa… Hey wait for me Sakura!" He said jogging to catch up to her, Zetsu not far behind him. Konan crossed her arms and looked at her team, "We really screwed up you guys." The boys nodded then slowly followed after Sakura. When they reached her house they found her giving the elder boys a tour of it. "This is the garden." Sakura said as she opened the sliding door to reveal the garden. Zetsu's eyes widened. "**It's beautiful.**" Sakura giggled as Zetsu eagerly checked out the plants. "This isn't that bad of a place pink. How'd you get it?" Kisame said.

Sakura shrugged, "No one wanted it so I took it. There's another place I found but I'll show it to you guys later. Right now we have to pick a room out for you guys." She walked right past her team, not sparing them a glance. "The rooms are down this way." She said. Kisame and Zetsu side stepped the trio and followed Sakura down the hall. "This is my room." She said pushing open the door to the master bedroom.

The boys blinked. There was blood…everywhere. "Down the hall and to the left are Pein, Konan, and Yahiko's rooms." Sakura said as she pulled of her pack and set it on her bed. "Let's go get you two a room now." She walked past them and back into the hall. With one last look around the room they followed. Sakura opened a room two doors away from her own. "This one has an adjoining bathroom." She said as the boys walked in.

"My room!" Kisame said once he saw how spacious it was. There were dressers on the left side of the room, a large bed in the middle, and the bathroom door was on the right side. He lay down on the bed, "Yeah, this is my room." He said with a sigh. Sakura giggled and grabbed Zetsu's arm, "Come on! Time for your room!" Zetsu chuckled, "Alright then." Sakura dragged him to thee room across from Kisame's, "This can be your room!"

This room was smaller than Kisame's but had the same basic structure. "So?" Sakura said after he looked around, "Do you like it?" Zetsu smiled and turned to look at her, "Yes. Thank you Sakura." Sakura smiled, "Well good." Then she started backing out of the room, "I'm going to go train now! Later!" Then she ran out his room. Zetsu's eyes widened, she can't train alone! Not after what happened last time!

He quickly left his room, "Sakura wait!" Kisame sat up from his bed as Zetsu ran past his room, "Hey what's going on?" Zetsu stopped to stare at him, "Sakura's leaving to train!" Kisame smacked his forehead, "That girl is going to kill herself." He grumbled and stood up. Grabbing his sword he stepped out of his room, "Alright, which direction did she go?" Zetsu threw up his arms, "I don't know!" Kisame sighed, "Let's go look for her then…"

They walked into the living room, "Hey dumbass." Yahiko growled and turned around on the couch to glare at Kisame, "What do you want fish face?" Kisame rolled his eyes at the lame name, "Where does Sakura go to train around here?" The glare intensified, "What should I tell you?" Kisame sighed, "I don't have time for you, just tell me where she trains." "I'm not telling you-!" Konan threw a pillow at his face, "Shut up Yahiko. She trains in a small valley just outside of Amegakure. There's a waterfall on the east end of it, you can't miss it." Kisame gave her a curt nod then the two boys left. Yahiko threw the pillow at Konan, "What the hell? Why'd you tell them?" She rolled her eyes, "Those two have done more for Sakura then we've done for her in three years." Yahiko pursed his lips, "Yeah…whatever."

**o0o**

Sakura sat cross legged by the waterfall with the fire scroll in her lap. _'Let's says we should be able to summon fire now.'_ Inner pumped her fist, **'Fuck yeah! Let's do it!' **Sakura licked her lips, _'What if what happened last time happens again?' _Inner pursed her lips, **'Why must you always be so negative?' **Sakura shrugged, _'Dunno, it's just the way I am.' _Inner snorted, **'Yeah no kidding… But come on! We won't know unless we try!'**

Sakura chewed on her lip, _'I don't know…' _Inner huffed, **'There's a freaking waterfall right here! If we burst into flames just jump into it!' **Sakura rolled her eyes and laughed, _'Okay, you convinced me. But if anything happens remember, it's your fault!' _Inner scoffed, **'When we wield fire you're going to thank me.' **Sakura grinned, _'We'll see.'_

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. _'Okay, fire. Think fire. Hot, flaming, scary fire.' _She squirmed a little. **'No stupid! Think life!' **Sakura frowned, life? Alright then. Fire, life. Something to ward off the darkness, safety. Her right arm began to feel warm and tingly. Her brow furrowed at the feeling. **'Ignore it! Continue with the thought!' **Right. Fire. What else was fire like? Powerful. Very powerful. Such a strong element. Capable of many things, life and death.

Her arm got warmer. _'Okay…now that's getting uncomfortable…' _She flexed her hand and the warmth surged up her arm. Her eyes shot open, "What the hell!" She screeched. _'Oh my Kami my arm's on fire!' _She was about to thrust her hand into the water when Inner stopped her with a yell. **'What the hell do you think you're doing?' **Sakura's breath came fast, "What do I think-! Inner my arm's on FIRE!" Inner nodded, **'Uh huh, yeah. But are you burning?' **Sakura was close to hyperventilating, "What? What are you talking about?" Inner smacked her forehead, **'Are you being hurt by the fire?'**

After a moment Sakura shook her head, "No…I'm completely fine." Inner nodded, **'Then that means it worked. WOOO! WE CAN CONTROL FIRE!' **Inner yelled. Sakura ears ringed and she winced. She looked at her arm and was amazed. The fire was white. Coursing up and down her arm, there was no denying it. It was real. After peering inside the fire for a while she noticed something odd about it. Every once in a while a random color would spark. It was like a mini rainbow, albeit a deadly one. Now, was it good as a weapon?

Frowning she picked up a stick and put the tip in the fire. It immediately caught and Sakura pulled it away from her arm. She watched it burn then dipped it into the water. Then she again put the drenched stick to her arm. It took a moment but the stick still caught. So, it was strong enough to burn things even if they were wet. But could she wield it?

She put her other hand parallel to her right one, palm facing up. She frowned as she concentrated moving the fire over her to her left hand. Sweat trickled down her face and the fire slowly crawled off her hand and drifted in the air. It sputtered for a moment before it seated itself in the palm of her hand. Then she concentrated in turning the fire in her left into a ball in her palm. It took a while but she soon had two balls of fire in her palms. She jerked her hand up and the fire bounced up like a bouncy ball.

She turned toward the water and threw on of the balls into the water. Steam hissed up and she could hear the bubbling of the water. She blinked; okay…that's some hot fire. She put her hands together and made a single shadow clone. The clone saluted her, "Hey boss!" Sakura smiled at it, "Hello, I need you to do something for me." The clone nodded, "I'm right on it boss!" The clone reached inside it pouch and pulled out a kunai and some shuriken, "When ever you're ready boss!"

'**Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What are you doing?' **Inner said waving her arms frantically. "Training." Sakura said. Wasn't it obvious? Inner waggled her finger, **'Don't talk to me like that! I meant what the hell do you think you're doing having the clone throw sharp and dangerous objects at us?' **Sakura rolled her eyes, "Relax. I'm trying to see if we can us the fire as a shield." Inner's eyes bugged out, **'Are you serious? This is our first time doing this! And I don't really feel like dying right now!' **Sakura sighed, "Make up your mind already! You want me to train then you don't which is it?"

Inner crossed her arms, **'Let's just hold off the fire shields for a little while okay. At least until we're more comfortable with it anyway. That goes for weapons too!' **Sakura sighed, "Fine whatever." The clone smiled, "Guess I'm not needed anymore." Then it disappeared with a puff of smoke. Sakura stared at her hand. "How do we get rid of it?" Inner scratched her chin, **'Beats me.' **

"Well maybe if I…" Sakura slapped her hands together then the heat of the fire disappeared. She blinked, "It worked. Cool!" She flexed her hands; they were still tingly from the fire. "Sakura!" She turned around and saw Kisame and Zetsu running toward her, she waved, "Hey guys." They looked her up and down, "Are you okay?" Zetsu asked her. She frowned, "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

The boys looked at each other. Kisame chuckled and scratched the back of his head, "Well… Your last training session didn't end so well…" Sakura's mouth opened into an 'o' shape, "Right… last time…" There was an uncomfortable silence before Sakura slapped her hands together, "Well I'm alright right now! So let's go back home!" The boys nodded and followed her.

Halfway through the walk Kisame asked, "So what happened last time?" Sakura shrugged, "Nothing really. I just fainted from…" She quickly thought up an excuse, "Chakra exhaustion." Zetsu stared at her, "Really?" She nodded, "Yup." He sped up so he was right next to her, "Then why were you crying when you woke up?" Sakura pursed her lips and stopped walking. _'Should I tell them?' _Inner nodded, **'They're all we have…'** Sakura took a deep breath and turned to look at the boys. "On the day I turned five my older sister died. This guy killed her because she wouldn't do something for him. She died protecting me. Six months later my dad killed my mom and himself because he was so sad about her death."

She turned around a lifted her shirt. Soft gasps were heard, "He tried to kill me too but for some reason I survived." She let her shirt fall back down, covering her scars. "Happy now." She said then walked away. Kisame ran up to her, "Hey now, don't be mad at us. We were worried is all." She looked up at him, "Really?" He nodded, "Really." Zetsu walked up to the other side of her and she smiled at them both and grabbed their hands. "Thanks you guys." They smiled, "Anytime pink."

* * *

So I'm thinkng of having a small timeskip next chapter. It'll probably be up to when Yahiko dies, though that may or may not happen in here! So please tell me your thoughts! And read my crossover! Maybe you'd like it! It's a sequel though, so you may have to read the begining first. I'm editing that by the way. The first six chapters are now free of mistakes! Soon they'll all be done. Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	12. Chapter 12

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! Please enjoy this chapter!

**violentblossom: **Yes, you teared up! I'm sorry, but if you get emotional it means I'm doing a good job!

**Zanna-chan: **If you like him you'll definitely like how this chapter will turn out. I promise to develop him more, somehow someway.

**Galatia: **Awesomeeee! I love Kisame and Zetsu so if you like them a little more that's great!

**Yoi no Chi: **I love that you say it's awesome! I was hoping you'd like her fire skills! They'll develop to even more awesome/epic skills farther on in the story. Fish face is my favorite nickname for Kisame! And if you're a mini Gai then I am a mini Lee Chi-chan! TO THE YOUTHFUL YOUTHFULNESS! YOSH! *fist pump* (but I am NOT wearing that jumpsuit, I so do not have the body for that, I'm a little jiggly…)

**Lungs: **I decided to have the time skip somewhere at the halfway point in this chapter. But my dear, they had to say that so that they could see the errors of their ways. Remember, everything happens for a reason.

**asdf: **Yahiko may or may not die. I already know what happen so now you must read to find out what happens! Yeah I ignore most of those parts too. Maybe we'll get over our complex somehow, though I doubt it.

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Sakura sat on her bed trying to increase her chakra supply. Key word try. It was startling how someone's concentration could be broken from people constantly hovering in front of your room, making sure you didn't all of a sudden keel over and die. Simply baffling. Yeah, she hated it. She growled to herself when she felt yet another aura hovering at her door, peeking into the small crack in the door way. The person stood there for a moment then left, satisfied that she was still alive.

She took a deep breath, maybe this time they'd leave her alone. Inner crossed her arms with a huff, **'Fat chance of that happening. One of them will be there before five minutes passes.' **Sakura prayed Inner was wrong. She was just reaching her chakra when a knock sounded on her door. "WHAT!" Sakura yelled in frustration turning toward the door angrily. Kisame pursed his lips, his head peering around the door, "Um…I can come back later…"

Sakura sighed and rubbed her temples, "No it's okay. What do you need?" He opened her door fully and leaned against the door frame, "Zetsu told me you have some type of water scroll." She tensed, "Wh-what?" Kisame blinked. "Uhh… I know some water jutsus; I could help you train if that's what you want to learn…" She relaxed a little, "You'd do that?" He flashed his pearly, sharp teeth at her, "Course." She smiled gently at him and nodded, "Yeah, okay. I'd like that. Thank you."

He was about to say something else when Yahiko pushed him out of her door way, "Move fish face!" Kisame rolled his eyes but moved nonetheless. "Talk to me about it later 'kay pink. We'll make your training routine then." Then he retreated to his bedroom. Yahiko turned to her, "So…want to train?" Sakura sighed, "Actually I was trying to train right now." He looked around her room confused, "How?" She closed her eyes, "I'm trying to expand my chakra." The sound of his feet shuffling closer to her, "How do you do that?" Her brow furrowed, shouldn't he already know how to do this?

Still with her eyes closed she replied, "First you have to be silent. Relax yourself and reach inside yourself and find your chakra. Then you slowly uncoil it and expand it. It will begin to hurt at some point and when that happens you then begin recoil it. It's hard and takes a long time to finish and your exhausted afterward, but your chakra is bigger, even just a little."

She felt her bed dip and cracked open an eye to watch Yahiko make himself comfortable next to her. He looked at her expectantly. "Close you eyes and breath in deeply, calm yourself." He did as told. A small smile found itself on her face and she reclosed her eyes. She found that he matched his breathing with hers. "Now reach inside…" She followed her own instructions and reached inside. Looking for the small pool of chakra deep inside. It was vastly greater then the meager amount she had first started with.

"Uncoil it…" Once she released her chakra from its bonds she smiled satisfied with how large it really was. It seemed her hard work for the past two months was really paying off. "Expand it…" She felt it seep from the pool located just above her heart to travel throughout her entire body. Coursing just beside her veins, making her entire body tingle. She heard Yahiko grunt in pain, "Recoil it slowly, not to small and not to big…" Her stamina and endurance had lengthened these past couple of months. She was now able to expand for nearly an hour before it hurt. Inner giggled, she was only able to last five minutes in the beginning.

She heard him flop onto her bed with a sigh. She felt his eyes on her as she continued to expand. When the pain hit her she began to recoil it, the tingly feeling left and she was tired, but not to the point where she couldn't do any other training. She opened her eyes and stared at Yahiko. His mouth was open in shock. "You did that for a long time. How are you not exhausted?" She smiled, "I was exhausted when I first tried it." She blinked, "Which reminds me, you shouldn't do this back to back. You'll kill yourself if you do."

She stood and stretched her limbs, Yahiko propped himself up with his arms gaping at her, "Really?" She nodded. "How long have you done this?" She bent down to touch her toes, "Two months." When she stood straight Yahiko had some newfound astonishment in his eyes. She raised an eyebrow, "Why is that so shocking? I had nothing else to do in Mist while you guys were off prancing around being legalized as ninja."

Yahiko winced, "We're sorry about that Sakura. We just didn't think you were ready and-" She raised her hand to stop his apologies, "Enough, it's done and over with now. I don't really care anymore." Inner sighed, **'At least not very much…' **Yahiko looked at her hopefully, "You're really not mad about it?" She shook her head, "No." He smiled at her, "That's good. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you stayed mad at me." He looked at her curiously as she froze, "Sakura?"

She blinked and turned to him, "Y-yes?" He frowned, "Are you okay?" She nodded, "Yeah. I'm fine." She turned to leave her room, "I think I'm going to go talk to Kisame about training, you should probably go to your room and rest." He sat up, "Um…okay." She quickly went to Kisame's room. She closed the door behind her and took a few deep breaths. She felt Kisame staring at her curiously but ignored him. Yahiko nearly said to same thing her sister told her just before she died.

_That's good. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you ever got hurt._

Her eyes burned and she shut them angrily. "That was the past. In the past. All in the past…" She felt Kisame's large hand on her head, "Hey, you alright pink?" She nodded and rubbed her eyes, "Yeah I'm alright. So about our training…" He chuckled, "That eager eh?" She nodded. He walked back to his bed, "Well what do you know so far?" She crawled onto his bed and watched him take the bindings off his sword, "None." He halted in his unbinding, "None?" She nodded. He sighed, "Then what about that water scroll of yours? What is it about? Maybe I can center your training on it or something…"

He continued with unbinding his odd sword as Sakura abused her lip, _'Inner what do I do?' _Inner rolled her eyes, **'Tell him, duh.' **Sakura frowned, _'But you're the one that told me to keep the scroll training a secret!' _Inner crossed her arms, **'Yeah well, I lied. Now tell him!' **She narrowed her eyes, _'You bitch!' _Inner gasped and waggled her finger, **'Oh, I know you didn't call me what I think you called me!' **Sakura glared, _'Oh I did. Bitch!' _Inner gasped again, **'What in the hell is with the name calling?' **Sakura's eyes twitched, _'You're pissing me off! You always call me names and you lie to me! How can you even do that? You're in my MIND!'_

The two continued arguing while Kisame stared at Sakura amused. Her expressions were funny. Zetsu had told him about her second self and it seemed that Sakura was arguing with her right now. Apparently the two were total opposites, Sakura and her second self. His eyes widened when he felt her chakra spike, he didn't know her chakra was that big. He smiled the things he learned about this girl. Sakura's face turned red and she glared at his sword. Samehada's scales bristled at the hostility. He patted it, "Don't worry, she's just fighting with herself." He felt Samehada raise an eyebrow and he chuckled, "No she's not crazy, she has a second self like Zetsu." Samehada accepted this and watched Sakura.

Kisame had relieved Samehada of the bindings when Sakura finally ceased to argue with herself. She abruptly stood then ran out of his room. He blinked then she reappeared and closed his door. Jumping onto his bed she grabbed his shoulders and stared him in the eyes, their noses touching. "What I am about to show you must never leave this room. Go it?" He tried hard not to laugh at her seriousness, she saw this and her grip on his shoulders tightened, "I'm serious Kisame. No one must know." That sobered him up, what was she so freaked about? He nodded, "Okay pink. I won't tell anyone."

She stared at him a moment longer before releasing him and looking around. "You don't sense Zetsu do you?" He shook his head, "Zetsu is in the garden." She scooted away from him, "Alright, ready?" He nodded hesitantly. She shut her eyes then her arm burst into flames. He gave a shocked yelp and nearly fell off the bed. "SHHHH!" She hissed at him. He pointed at her arm, "What the fuck!" She put her hand over his mouth, the non-flaming one mind you. "Shhh! Remember when I fainted after training in Mist?" He nodded, "It wasn't from chakra exhaustion." Kisame let out a stream of loud almost yells that were muffled by Sakura's hand still over his mouth.

"Kisame! Calm down! Look," she threw two scrolls into his lap, "those scrolls are where I learned how to do this." He opened the scrolls and his eyes widened; he pushed her hand away, "Sakura!" He said in a harsh whisper, "These are S class jutsus!" Her brow furrowed, "Is that bad?" A surprised look crossed his features, "Bad? You shouldn't be able to do this! It's way out of your level! This is for high level ninja like jounin, ANBU, and kages! Where did you get these?" She extinguished her arm, "When we were going to Mist these guys tried to mug us. We beat them then took their stuff; I got those and a bunch of weapons."

Kisame rubbed his forehead, "Okay so what about the water scrolls?" She took out two more scrolls and gave them to him. After looking at them he looked at her, "It's sort of the same thing as what you did with the fire. By the way why is it white?" She shrugged. He shook his head, "Well anyway, using water will be so much harder for you." Her head cocked to the side, "Why?" He handed her the scrolls and pulled out new bindings for Samehada, "Well for one thing, fire and water are natural opposites. So it's only natural that to use water is going to be the polar opposite off how you learned to use fire."

He scratched his chin, "Though maybe it won't be so hard. You and your second self are opposites right?" She nodded not seeing where he was going with this train of thought. "Then she's hot tempered and speaks her mind?" Sakura nodded hesitantly. "Maybe that's why you were able to learn fire so fast. Your second self's nature matches the nature of fire. Now you, on the other hand, are calm and think before you talk, you know how to control yourself and you just go with the flow." He grinned at her and her eyes widened. "So my nature matches the nature of water!" He nodded, "Exactly."

Sakura jumped a little on the bed, "So when do we start training?" Kisame smiled, "As soon as I finish wrapping Samehada." Sakura let out an excited giggle then sat up straight, "OH! I'm going to go get my weapons scroll!" Then she hopped off his bed and ran to her room. Kisame chuckled, "It's going to be fun training her, eh Samehada?" Samehada shook in anticipation. He could hear Sakura running around in her room, a thump, and then a groan. Kisame laughed, she must have fallen in her haste. He finished wrapping Samehada and stood, hefting Samehada up to rest on his shoulder, and walked to Sakura's room.

He saw a glimpse of pink from under the bed, then a foot. He walked forward and grabbed her ankle, she squeaked and he pulled her out. She grinned at him, hanging upside down with scrolls in her hands. She shook one, "I found it!" He chuckled and tossed her onto her bed and she bounced once before rolling off of the bed. She grabbed his arm, "Come on Kisame let's go!" He chuckled and let her lead him to her valley. They settled down by the waterfall. "Close your eyes and listen to the water."

Sakura did as told and listened to the thundering roar the waterfall created. "Make yourself in tune with the water. Relax, join yourself with the water." She was lulled into a trance, the rhythmical sounds of the waterfall soothing her, consuming her. Her heart thrummed to its beat, slow and powerful. Her body cooled and felt bubbly, unlike the warm tingly feeling of fire. Inner was unnaturally quiet, subdued by the water. She let out a sigh and nearly fell asleep if she hadn't heard Kisame's gasp.

She cracked her eyes open, "What's wrong Kisame?" His eyes were trained on her, flickering between her and the water behind her. She glanced behind herself and saw a trail of water drifting towards her. She reached out with her left hand and the water coiled up her arm like a snake. She let her chakra seep out of her entire arm slowly, familiarizing herself with it. The water seemed to sigh and relax against her. More chakra leaked, condensing the water, it began to get icy, turned dark blue. Her eyes fluttered closed at the feeling.

As she let more of her chakra mix the colder the water got. It felt as if her entire arm was incased in ice. Finally the water turned so cold it felt warm. A small voice in the back of her mind wondered if this was what frostbite felt like. Then a stabbing pain shot up her arm, making her gasp. She opened her eyes a moment to glance at her arm. It was, in fact, incased in ice. The ice was dark blue almost a purplish color. The pain increased and her eyes rolled back into her head.

Kisame's eyes widened when her eyes rolled back and she slumped. He grabbed her to keep her from falling into the water and drowning. The ice melted and left her arm wet and icy cold. She began to shiver and he pulled her close to his body. "Well….that was….interesting." He said. Samehada laughed at him. "You think she's alright?" He felt Samehada smile, **'The girl is fine, let her body cope with the bonding. She'll wake eventually. Take her home and lay her in her bed. Stay with her if you're really that worried. When she wakes it will all be fine, you'll see.'**

Kisame sighed, "Alright then." Cradling her in one arm and lifting Samehada with the other he headed back to the house. He heard Konan cooking in the kitchen and her ordering Pein around. He quickly walked past the kitchen and garden, entering Sakura's room and closing the door as silently as he could. He laid her on the bed and wrapped her blanket around her, hoping to stop her shivers. He fidgeted next to her, not knowing what to do. **'Calm yourself boy. She doesn't need you being so worried. You'll scare her when she finally wakes.' **He rubbed his face frustrated, "Fine. Whatever you say." The sword chuckled at him, amused at how flustered the boy was. Yes, it's going to be fun training the girl.

**o0o**

This time was nothing like the last. Instead of pain she felt herself healing. No unbearable pain, just soothing feelings. She opened her eyes to the red sky. Sitting up she glanced around. Another color change seemed to have taken place. Her waterfall was now purple. She crawled over to it and dipped a hand inside. Cold, as expected. She took her hand out and watched the ripples the drops of water made. **'So you're back.' **She looked behind herself to see Inner, arms crossed and staring at her.

"Hey…" Sakura said standing up. Inner sighed, **'Hey…we're not going to...you know right?' **Sakura winced, "No. I can't go back there. At least not right now." Inner nodded, **'So…we can control two elements…' **The two looked at each other then squealed. They clutched onto one another laughing, **'We did it! Outer! We really did it!' **Sakura laughed and nodded. Inner pulled away and held Sakura at arm's length, **'What do we do now?' **Sakura shrugged, "Continue training. Become top kunoichi. After that I don't know."

Inner crossed her arms, **'We are going to get a boyfriend somewhere along the way aren't we?' **Sakura choked, "What!" Inner rolled her eyes, **'I want a guy to cuddle with! We are not going to be lonely our whole life!' **Sakura sputtered for a moment, "We're only ten!" Inner nodded, **'And you need to be prepared! This year we're turning eleven! A couple more years and all those teenage hormones are going to kick in! Look at how Pein and Konan are! They're going to jump each other one of these days!'**

Sakura clapped her hands over her ears, "I don't want to talk about this! Lalala! I can't hear you!" Inner snorted, **'Once you wake up you'll see! Isn't Kisame with us right now? He's pretty hot… Go wake up! Jump him!' **Sakura stared at Inner horrified. Then she opened her eyes and was face to face with Kisame. Sakura opened her mouth in a silent scream. **'Jump hiiiiim' **Inner whispered. She closed her mouth with a 'snap' and clenched her teeth, _'Go away you crazy bitch!' _Inner chuckled darkly, **'I'll be back!' **Then she let out a cackle and disappeared somewhere.

"Sakura? Are you okay?" Kisame asked worried. She nodded, "Yeah…" He sat back, "Good. Well Konan should be calling us for dinner soon." With another nod she sat up, "I'm ready for dinner." Then she slid off her bed and followed Kisame out into the living room. It wasn't long before dinner was finished and they gathered in dining room. It was a somewhat awkward dinner. She was able to see what Inner mentioned about Pein and Konan's relationship. They kept sneaking secret glances at each other.

Sakura ate her dinner as fast as she could. _'Damn you Inner! Damn you to hell!'_ After she ate her last bite she stood quickly and went to the kitchen to wash her dishes. After she was done with that she ran to her room yelling out a good night before slamming her door shut. She jumped onto her bed and buried her face into her pillow. It was going to be hard looking at her friends from now on. With one last curse towards Inner she fell asleep.

**o0o**

Her limbs ached. Her chest heaved and another bout of coughing erupted from her. She groaned and closed her eyes. A shadow fell over her and she cracked open her eyes to stare at the smiling giant in front of her. "We're not done yet pink." She groaned again, **'Damn you Kisame! Damn you and your work outs to hell!' **Sakura lifted her arm to Kisame; he chuckled and hauled her up. "What do we have left?" He grabbed her scythe that she had discarded when she fell to the ground and held it out to her, "More exercises." She sighed and grabbed the scythe, once again going through the numerous exercises, her tired arms protesting at the abuse.

Finally after another two hours Kisame let her stop. He decided to pity her and carried her home. When they walked through the door they were met with a group of boys all about Pein and Yahiko's age. Everyone turned to stare at the blue boy and the pink haired girl lying in his arms. Pein stood, "It's good to have you two join us." Behind him Konan smirked, Yahiko turned red, and Zetsu was twitching a little.

The arms around her tightened and she looked up to see Kisame giving Yahiko a triumphant smile. She blinked and turned her head to glance at the ten new faces in her home, deciding to ignore her friends' odd behavior. A brown haired boy smiled at her when he saw her looking at him, she returned the smile, "My name's Sakura." She reached her arm out to him. His smile widened and he stood, grabbing her hand. "Kaemon, nice to meet you."

Pein cleared his throat and everyone turned to him, "Well Sakura, Kisame, say hello to Akatsuki's newest members." Sakura blinked then a wide smile broke out on her face. **'Our family is getting bigger and bigger.' **Sakura tugged on Kisame's arm and he set her down on her feet. The boys introduced themselves and Sakura sighed, _'Nothing could break this happiness.' _

**o0oTime Skip 4 Yearso0o**

Breathe in. Breathe out. In. Out. In. Out. Lifting her arms she conjured up her elements. Her right burst into flames, while her left was surrounded by water. Her clone looked at her smiling widely, "Ready boss?" Sakura smirked, "Bring it." The clone's eyes twinkled, "Alrighty boss! Here we come!" The clone made a hand sign then suddenly Sakura was surrounded by clones of herself. They ran forward and Sakura thrust her arms forward, shards of ice and pellets of fire shooting out from her arms and took down numerous clones.

She flipped forward and landed on one clone's head. Launching her self in the air she spun, sending ice and fire down onto the clones. A cloud of smoke surrounded her as she fell to the ground. Releasing her elements she grabbed the scythe on her back. Twirling it around she cleared the area of smoke. She was greeted with even more clones then before, each with their own weapons. Running forward she slashed at the clones, creating more smoke. Deflecting the kunai aimed for her torso she slammed the scythe onto the ground, creating jagged rocks to sprout and a thick layer of dust.

She took the opportunity to destroy as many clones as she could. At one point her scythe was knocked out of her hands. She clenched her fists and her claws sprang out and she used them to block the slash from a clone. She spun in a roundhouse kick and launched a clone into several more. Flipping backwards she rolled behind one of the jagged rocks for coverage from the barrage of shuriken and kunai. **'Time for a blizzard!' **Inner giggled happily. Sakura smirked and threw a dozen kunai straight into the still ongoing barrage of weapons.

The small balls clasped to the kunai burst releasing hundreds of small papers. The clones looked around confused. She lifted two fingers to her mouth, "Sakura Blizzard!" The paper bombs exploded, leaving a large crater in its place. She peeked over the rocks and laughed, it worked! She walked around the crater and sighed in relief when she found her scythe far from the explosion, not a scratch on it. It would have sucked some major ass I her scythe was caught in that explosion. "Well, looks like it's time to go home."

"Hey guys I'm back!" She called out once she reached her house. Silence is all that greeted her. "Guys?" A house full of boys wasn't supposed to be quiet. Something was wrong. Un-strapping her scythe she walked around the house. No one was in the kitchen, living room, or garden, so she turned to the bed rooms. And that was where she found the boys bound with exploding tags on them. Kaemon looked up and saw her, his eyes widened, "Sakura!" It only took her a moment for her to realize the bombs were already burning. She went to help them but he shook his head, "No! He has Pein, Yahiko, and Konan! You have to help them!" She stopped in her shock, "Who?" He sneered, "Hanzo." She gasped. "Go Sakura. It's too late for us. Save them!" She bit her lip, "Go!" She turned and ran. Behind her the house exploded.

Tears fell from her eyes. That was her family! Hanzo killed them! Their kage! He killed his own ninja! Why? Why would he do such a horrid thing? Four years of their loyalty to the village and he slaughtered them all! She ran down the alleys, running toward the kage tower. He would most likely have them in the bottom dungeon of the tower. She opened a window and snuck inside. She began pushing against the walls; she knew that damn latch was around here somewhere… Her hand fell into the wall a little, _'Bingo.' _

Entering the small space wasn't hard for her and her petite body. It was a small corridor that would let her spy on any room in the entire building; Zetsu had found it for her. Her heart clenched, was Zetsu and Kisame still alive? Or were they caught in the explosion too? Her eyes hardened, Hanzo would pay. She pumped chakra into her feet to speed herself up. Soon she found herself in the bottom dungeon of the tower. Pushing a plate away let her see inside the room.

Her three friends were bound and gagged with Hanzo standing in front of them. Hanzo wasn't a tall man but he was rather muscular. He had long blond hair and brown eyes, and he always wore a respirator because of his toxic breath. Long ago he had put a black salamander's poison sack inside his own body, thus making him toxic. Sakura watched from her perch, waiting to find the time to strike.

"You three have caused me a lot of grief with your anti-war organization." Hanzo said glaring at them. He crouched down in front of Yahiko, pulling his gag down, "But I'm willing to let you go. On one condition though" Yahiko glared at him, "What kind of condition?" He growled. Hanzo wrapped his arm around Yahiko's shoulder's and turned him toward the other two, "Kill one of them and you and the one you spared go free." Yahiko jerked away from him, "Never!" Hanzo grabbed Yahiko's chin roughly, "You didn't let me finish. If you refuse all three of you die. Now decide." He released Yahiko and released Pein and Konan's gag. "Feel free to say your last goodbyes to whoever you're going to kill."

Then he stepped back to watch them. "Yahiko kill me! You and Konan leave and find Sakura!" Yahiko shook his head, "No! I'm not going to kill you guys! I-" Pein kicked him, "Dumbass! What other choice do you have? If you don't kill one of us we all die and Sakura's left alone, we already know the others are dead! If just one of us is gone it'll be okay." Yahiko groaned in frustration, "But I can't lose either of you!" Pein's eyes softened, "I know but it's the best choice, right Konan?" They turned to their blue haired friend who smiled sadly at them. "Konan what's wrong?" Pein asked. Tears fell from her eyes, "Find Sakura for me okay you guys. Tell her she was like my little sister and I loved her okay?" Yahiko looked at her scared, "What are you talking about Konan? We're going to get out of this together."

She shook her head, spilling more tears, as she scooted farther away from them, "We both know that's a lie Yahiko. I love you guys. Never forget that. Make sure Akatsuki makes a comeback. End the wars. I know you guys can do it, if anyone could it's you two." Her paper rose lit on fire and began to burn slowly, "Konan!" The boys yelled once they realized what was happening. Konan looked up to where Sakura was and smiled; she mouthed a few words then shut her eyes. Her flower burned out and she exploded. The entire building shook and Sakura cried out. She turned to see Hanzo shocked.

She jumped down and grabbed her scythe, "It's your fault she's dead! She killed herself because of you! All because of you!" She ran forward, "I'm going to kill you!" Hanzo pulled out his kusarigama and blocked her swipe. He blinked when he realized she was crying, "She's dead because of you!" She sent chakra to her leg and kicked him in the stomach. He flew back and hit the wall, creating a small crater. Sakura made four clones and sent one to release the boys before rushing Hanzo again. He swung the chain, sending the sickle straight at the clone to her left. It disappeared in a puff of smoke. The last two clones threw a barrage of kunai and shuriken, forcing Hanzo to block them.

She lifted her scythe and swung down, Hanzo leaped out of the way at the last minute. She turned toward him and created more clones before charging again. This time the clones engaged Hanzo in hand to hand combat, forcing him into a corner. One used her claws to tangle the chain of his kusarigama and wrenched it out of his grasp. Four others held him down to keep him from escaping. He stared at her terrified, "No! This can't be! How could you defeat me? A mere girl!" She stared at him, tears still streaming down her face, "Because you got careless. Now it's time to die." Lifting the scythe she slashed diagonally, slitting his neck and tearing into his chest down to his hip, piercing where the poisonous sack was.

He let out a gurgle as blood bubbled in his lungs and dripped out of his mouth. He fell to the floor where his body began to bubble from the poison leaking out, melting his body. Sakura turned to the boys who stared at her in shock, "Let's go." She turned to the stairs and ascended them, the boys following her. Once they left the tower they walked about a block away when Sakura turned around to face it. "Say goodbye boys. It's about to be gone." They stared at the tower in silence. Then the ground shook and the tower fell in on itself. Sakura's lip trembled, "You two are going to fulfill Konan's dying wish aren't you?"

The boys sniffled, "Of course we are. This just re-enforces our dream." Yahiko said. Pein nodded, "We have to accomplish it now more then ever." Sakura gave them a grim smile, "Good." The boys turned away and headed toward the valley, it was all they had left now. Sakura placed her hand over her heart, _'I'll do what you asked Konan, even if it kills me.' _She clenched her fist, _'I won't let you down.' _Then she turned to go to the valley. Kisame and Zetsu were they, having escaped the raiding in their home they retreated to the valley hoping to find Sakura there. The five of them was all that was left of Akatsuki. They decided to make the cave their new hide out. As they settled down for the night Sakura pulled out the paper cherry blossom Konan had made for her once she made chunin two years ago. She curled into a ball and cried silently.

_Watch over the boys Sakura, and become the greatest kunoichi the world has ever seen._

Sakura fell asleep with Konan's last silent words echoing in her ears.

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LE GASP! Konan is dead! Why yes, yes she is. I wanted to keep the single female member concept thus the death of the only other female member. So Sakura's fifteen now, Yahiko and Pein are eighteen, and Zetsu and Kisame are twenty. And if you're wondering about the whole 'Samehada can talk!' thing well here's the deal, since in the show Samehada actually left Kisame for Suigetsu for a little while I figured the thing is alive. So he's like Inner, only Kisame can hear him and he's an acient old man..sword...whatever. He can talk! Does anyone have any recomendations or ideas for what they want to happen next? Any new members you want me to add next? Tell me, it helps me make the chapters quicker. As always review, I love to hear your thoughts! Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	13. Chapter 13

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! So it looks like you all are very upset that I killed Konan. Well, like I said before, I wanted to keep the single female member thing going on and since this is a Sakura story… *shrugs* She had to go. Sorry. I don't know what to tell you. I wanted to have it that way so it is that way. Not much else I can say… So I hope you enjoy this chapter!

**asdf: **Yes, I'm trying to build up her strongness (there is a red squiggly under that word but I don't give a damn) into what I believe the character she should have been. I mean Kishimoto made her with so much promise yet he doesn't expand on it. He gives more depth to one time characters then he does with her! How screwed up is that? Hmmmm… Sasori? Yes maybe he'll make an appearance this chapter. I don't know when Orochimaru is coming so don't count on him anytime soon.

**Yoi no Chi: **Yes she's dead. But she died a youthful death! KisamexSakura! I love that couple! I'm still unsure on who the definite pairing will be but some Sakuraxmultiple can't hurt right? Thank you Mini Gai-chan!

**kaminariyoru: **Konan's wish will most definitely come true! Or will it? (dun dun dun!)

**Zanna-chan: **Samehada's a girl? I stopped watching the anime so I honestly have no idea what's happening in it. I know bits and pieces of things courtesy of my friend who keeps me updated but that's about it. If in my story Konan died for a stupid reason then in the actual anime/manga Yahiko's death was also stupid. I did the same thing just with a different character. The ocs weren't really ocs, the original Akatsuki had a boatload of people and I just picked a random name to give one. There's not much I can do to make you happy, I wanted this to happen and that's that. I'm not going to change it simply because I upset everyone. Sure I write for you guys but this is also my story.

**Lungs: **Did it really feel rushed? Damn. The time between when Akatsuki came to be and Yahiko's death is a mystery to me so I skipped it. I'm so sorry. I'll try to integrate future time skips more fluidly.

**mayalice: **I'm happy to hear that you love it!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

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Sakura dunked her head back under the water. A month had passed since her house was destroyed along with a majority of her family. Since then Yahiko and Pein have been bombarded with questions from the council about what happened to Hanzo. Of course the boys took the blame for Hanzo's death and were awarded a temporary joint position as kage. Apparently the council was searching for a reason to appoint a new kage because Hanzo had become 'obsolete'. And lucky them when Ame's most prized chunin stepped up to the plate.

She blew out an angry stream of bubbles from her nose. Why was it that every time she felt a step closer to them they leaped ten meters farther from her? It wasn't fair! The only reason they had the position was because of her! The only reason they had the best spy and best water user was because of her! The only reason they're still alive is because of her! Hanzo would have killed them without a second thought! She was the one to avenge Konan's death! Not them!

So why was she always pushed to the back of everyone's minds? Why was she always the last to be considered? Why as she always out of the loop? Why did no one ever congratulate her on her accomplishments? Why did all of her achievements get passed on to someone else? Why were other people always taking the glory away from her? Why couldn't she be praised? Why couldn't people recognize her worth? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

The water around her was steadily becoming warmer and swirled rapidly in her anger. What was it going to take for her to finally be remembered? To finally be praised? To finally come first? She already saved the two top chunins' asses. What more did they want? A blood sacrifice? Like hell she would die for these ungrateful people! Then a thought struck her. What if she left? Never come back? Her brow furrowed, they probably wouldn't even notice that she left. But on the slim chance that they did, would they care that she left?

Anger consumed her. Who the fuck cares what they feel? Certainly not her! They never once put her feelings first so why should she care about them? But then her promise to Konan came back to her. She couldn't leave though. The boys, however ungrateful they were, needed her. Konan _knew _that. That was why her last words were for her to watch over the boys. But did she really have to be with them to watch them? The second part of Konan's wish made her think. Konan wanted her to become the top kunoichi. She certainly wasn't going to reach that level stuck in Ame with these people.

Her eyes widened maybe she could leave! She began to swim to the surface. She gasped for air as her head broke the surface. She hurriedly began to swim towards her clothes. She could leave them and just keep tabs on their progress! After all Konan never asked for her to be _with _them, just to watch over them. Pulling herself out of the water she grabbed her towel and began drying herself off. While slipping on her underwear another thought struck her, what about Kisame and Zetsu? They actually did care about her. Would she really be able to leave them? She wrung her hair and pulled on the rest of her clothes as she walked into the cave.

Would they leave with her? She wasn't sure. Though they had only joined the organization because of her, and they didn't seem to particularly like Yahiko and Pein. It was more like an uneasy coexistence that was only around for her benefit. If it wasn't for her she was certain Zetsu would have eaten Pein and Kisame would have killed Yahiko the moment he had set eyes on the boy. Surely they wouldn't give a second thought to leaving with her. So why did she still have this weird feeling in the pit of her stomach?

She rubbed her hands over her face, why was this so hard? She was never happy with them, so why was she hesitating? She brought out her sharpening tools and grabbed her scythe. Maybe sharpening her prized weapon would help her. Before she left the cave she glanced around. It was steadily become fuller and fuller with her stuff. Since the boys became kage they were required to remain inside the village at all times. There was a debate going on to decide which is best suited for the official title of kage. Both were worthy but only one could take the title. As a result they were given a rather extravagant house, though Inner insisted it was a mansion on crack, and she was left to live in her cave.

They had offered her a place in the house but she declined. There was no way she would be able to face them nearly 24/7 with her emotions on a rampage. Kisame and Zetsu choose living with her over the boys, no one argued because if the four of them were left alone for ten minutes, let alone living together without her there, would result in casualties and possible ingestion. She shuddered; the white carpet in the mansion did not deserve to be soiled by the bloodshed that would result from that.

With a sigh she left the cave and walked outside, it was sprinkling. She was thankful that the usual heavy rain fall had ceased, even for just a little while. Sharpening the large blade wasn't a hard task and she was finished with it soon. Pocketing her sharpening tools she crossed her legs, might as well expand her chakra while she still had the luxury of silence. But unfortunately her mind wasn't as quiet as the physical world. Questions and concerns bounced around her head and Inner was brooding in a corner.

Sakura clenched her teeth and forced her mind to relax. Soon her body loosened and she began her chakra expansion. Her pool of chakra was now a half the size as Kisame's seemingly endless pool of chakra. She knew that this method of training wouldn't be of any use to her soon. The farther she went with her shinobi career the less time she had for the total silence that this technique demanded. Not to mention the fact that if she was ever interrupted while expanding her chakra could end with her being unable to access her chakra or with her death. It was a miracle that this hadn't already happened to her.

After expanding her chakra she let out a huff, laid down on the grass and shut her eyes. _'List of things to do: 1) Find a new way to expand chakra 2) Learn more jutsus now that we have the chakra 3) Decide whether or not to leave this place.' _She let out a heavy sigh, like number three was ever going to be done. She knew she wouldn't be able to leave those idiots. As mean as they were to her, they were still the first people to be somewhat nice to her since she became an orphan. **'But Kisame and Zetsu are always nice to us. Not to mention sharky might have a crush on us! And our cannibalistic plant!' **Sakura rolled her eyes, _'They do not. You're just so horny that you think everyone wants to jump us.'_

Inner wiggled her eyebrows, **'They do want to jump us! I know it! I can feel it! And I want to jump them too! Maybe we could get them both at one time? I bet that would be uber fun!' **Sakura crinkled her nose in disgust, _'You're so gross and horny, how do you live with yourself?' _Inner smiled, **'Simple. I breathe and enjoy all the fantasies that your mind makes up.' **Sakura raised an eyebrow, _'I make up? Don't you mean you make up?' _Inner shrugged, **'I live in your mind so technically you're the one that makes these things up.' **Sakura rolled her eyes, _'Yeah, whatever you say.' _

She opened her eyes and stared at the cloudy sky. _'What to do? What to do?' _She sighed then stood up; grabbing her scythe she turned towards Ame. **'Where are we going?' **Inner asked once Sakura entered the village, _'We're going to the library to find some more jutsus.' _A wide smile broke out on Inner's face, **'Seriously? Oh this is going to be so fun!' **Sakura sighed; sometimes she really worried about Inner.

Civilians looked her way as she walked the streets. Ninja watched her from the corners of their eyes. Everyone whispered. It was utterly annoying. Ever since the boys became kage, everyone knew about Akatsuki. Before Akatsuki was just some random organization that was sprouting up in Ame, but now that the creators of it became kage Akatsuki had a newfound fame. And she was wearing her Akatsuki cloak signalizing her as a member. It was sad really. No one cared about them before and now that some have a high position it seemed that everyone loved them.

She finally reached the library and was thankful for the silence. The librarian looked up and smiled, "New scrolls are in the back. Help yourself to them." Sakura nodded and gave the woman a small smile. The librarian turned back to cataloging the scrolls. Sakura was happy that the librarian treated her the same. She would come to the library with her sister sometimes and now that she was a ninja she came now more then ever. And throughout the whole thing the lady would just smile and direct her to whatever new topic Sakura asked about. Now she would set special scrolls to the side for Sakura, the lady was almost like the kind aunt Sakura never had.

She quickly walked down the aisles and entered the back room of the library. The room was separated into three sections: ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. And each section was organized according to types (i.e. ninjutsu: fire, water, air, etc.). Walking over to the genjutsu section she searched under torture. Inner has been nagging her for the past month for torture jutsus. Picking a random scroll she read. She blinked at the first jutsu.

'**Aren't genjutsus supposed to be illusions? This doesn't seem like an illusion to me…' **The jutsu didn't have a name and it wasn't as complicated as her water and fire scrolls, but it was a lethal jutsu. The jutsu inflicted physical wounds on the enemy, and it could either kill or seriously wound an enemy. She memorized the signs then put the scroll back to pick another.

**o0o**

Looking up at the clock Sakura was faintly surprised to see that it was three in the afternoon. She had been at the library examining scrolls for nearly six hours. She stood and stretched her limbs. She put the scroll she was reading back and grabbed her scythe from it position on the wall next to her. Heaving it onto her shoulder she exited the back room. The librarian looked up with a kind smile, "You were in there for a long while Sakura-chan did you enjoy yourself?" Sakura nodded, "I did Atsuko-san. I found a lot of new jutsus that are sure to come in handy later." Atsuko folded her hands, "That's good. So how is it going with your team?"

Sakura face fell a little, "Ah, it's been better." Atsuko tilted her head to the side curious, "Oh? How so?" A sad smile appeared on Sakura's face, "They're kage now, and they don't need me. They never really did. I don't know what to do now…" She trailed off when Atsuko peered down at her with a critical eye, "Come by tomorrow Sakura-chan, I think I may have something immensely beneficial to you." Sakura blinked, confused with the sudden change in Atsuko's demeanor, "Sure thing Atsuko-san, see you tomorrow." Then she turned and left the library.

'**Can you say weird.'** Sakura's brow furrowed, _'I wonder what that was all about. Atsuko-san is usually never so…demanding.' _Inner stroked her chin thoughtfully, **'Well whatever it is, we'll find out about it tomorrow. Now we have to deal with the meeting we have with the boys today.' **Sakura groaned she had completely forgotten about the meeting Yahiko had arranged for the remaining Akatsuki today. She changed her course from going to her cave to the boys' mansion. **'How much do you want to bet that this is about who's going to be kage and who's going to lead Akatsuki?' **

Sakura snorted as she entered the gates surrounding the mansion, ignoring the stares everyone gave her, _'I'm not stupid Inner. I'm not going to bet against something true, however much I wish it wasn't.' _Pushing open the front door she sighed at the sight of the marble walls, the large chandelier, and extreme sense of superiority the mansion seemed to secrete. This was where she would be living if the boys had decided to let her take blame for everything she had done. Instead they took her achievements and used them for their own benefit. Her fist clenched onto the handle of her scythe.

But no matter what, she wouldn't let them see how much it bothered her. She couldn't let them see her pain; they would see her as weak. No. She would have to find another way to show them. How she was going to do that she wasn't sure. But good things come to those that wait. Inner snorted, **'Unless you take the bull by the horns and beat his ass into submission.' **Sakura smiled as she navigated her way around the halls to get to the meeting room. She finally found the room and could sense four uneasy auras inside. **'Looks like everyone's here, better go inside before someone gets his head chopped off.' **

Sakura chuckled lightly to herself and opened the doors; the boys all turned to her and seemed to all breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of her. Yahiko was seated at the head of the grand table in the middle of the room with Yahiko to the right of him. Zetsu and Kisame were seated in the middle of either side of the table and Sakura took her own seat at the other end of the table. They all watched her silently as she settled herself into the seat; she in turn stared at them with a raised eyebrow, "Are we going to get the meeting started or what?"

Pein cleared his throat, "Well this is about who'll lead Akatsuki and who'll take the position as kage." Inner crossed her arms and sat with a huff, **'I told you.' **Sakura mentally rolled her eyes, _'Hush, we knew that this was coming up anyway.' _Inner shrugged, **'I'm still right.' **Sakura tuned Inner out and focused on Pein, "We have decided that I will take the position as Kage here and Yahiko will continue on as the Leader of Akatsuki." Silence followed the announcement.

Sakura leaned back into her chair, _'Huh, can't say I didn't see that coming. After all Yahiko is the one that created Akatsuki…' _Inner leaped from her seat, **'Bullshit! You should be the leader! We're the reason why Akatsuki has any members to begin with!' **As Inner fumed Sakura tuned back into the real world, she leaned forward slightly in her seat, "And what does that mean for the rest of us?" The boys all turned to her and Inner's rampage quieted down. "What do you mean Sakura?" Pein asked her calmly.

"I mean now that you two decided which lead position you want what are you going to do with us? Kisame, Zetsu and I are still members of Akatsuki and now Yahiko is our leader. What is his intention for us and are you still an active member in this organization or what?" Pein folded his hands together, "I am still a member of this organization though I may not be as active as you three will be. As for what Yahiko will do is entirely up to him, though I may be kage he is still the leader of the organization I am in and therefore I must do as he says."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, "Even when he comes to the village?" He shrugged, "If the well being of the village is compromised I am obligated to refuse to do as he demands and he must also listen to me I it comes to that because I am still his kage." Inner's brow furrowed, **'So…they're co-leaders of both the village and Akatsuki?' **Sakura decided to voice Inner's question. Yahiko nodded, "I guess you can say that. We're both on equal grounds with each other. As for what Akatsuki will do, our goal stays the same. Achieve world peace and to recruit members along the way, though now we will only let those who'll benefit Akatsuki to become a member. And from now on we'll work in pairs of two."

Kisame stood straighter in his seat, "So are you sending us on a mission to get our own partners then pretty boy?" Yahiko smiled, "As a matter of fact I am fish face. We have to seek out these people and bring them in; we also need to get as many footholds in as many places as we can. If our goal is to come true we need allies and we need a lot of them. Whether by force or not is entirely dependent on who we deem worthy."

Inner bit her cheek, **'Isn't the force thing totally contradicting the whole point of Akatsuki?' **Sakura shrugged, _'They're to stupid to realize that.' _One question was eating at Sakura though, "How exactly are we going to achieve world peace? Not everyone will agree with our idea and they'll try to destroy us like Hanzo nearly did." Zetsu nodded, "Yes, how exactly are we going to do that? We can't force everyone to see our way with just a few ninja at our disposal. It would take an immense amount of power to get even close to our goal, and we clearly do not have that."

A wide smile broke out on Yahiko's face, "I've already solved that problem. As you've said we will need a lot of power to achieve our goal. And we humans will never have the power needed for it." Sakura narrowed her eyes when he said 'humans' but continued to listen with out interrupting him. "No matter how many people we recruit, no matter who we make an allegiance with, our goal, our dream will never come to be. No, we need something else. One element will help us make our dream a reality."

Inner licked her lips nervously, **'Yahiko is seriously starting to freak me out Outer-chan. The crazed smile and far away look is really creepy…' **Sakura agreed Yahiko was certainly going up on the creepy scale. She looked around and noticed that Kisame seemed to share her thoughts; he was staring at Yahiko with a raised eyebrow and was leaning away from the boy. Zetsu was as stoic as ever and Pein was simply watching Yahiko, waiting for the end of his speech.

"What is this 'element' that we need?" Zetsu asked. Yahiko stood and pressed his palms onto the table as he leaned toward them slightly, "It isn't just one element, actually. It is really nine elements. Nine powerful elements that we must find and take for ourselves. We won't be able to take them right away however; we still need more skilled members to help. But once we get our members we will be able to get them. To harness their power for ourselves. World peace will be in the palm of our hands! Nine not so simple elements and it'll all be ours."

He looked at all of their faces, his smile growing wider. "What we need, gentlemen and lady." He nodded to Sakura. Sakura narrowed her eyes, she did not like the way this speech was going and she had a faint inkling of what he was going to say next. "What we need is all of nine of the tailed demons at our disposal." He declared, smiling even wider.

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I'm sorry for the late update you guys! My computer crashed and it left me unable to update. Luckily my documents were able to be saved and I was able to get this up. If anyone has suggeations for what they want to happen please let me know. Like if you want Sakura to leave, who you want her paired with, what member you want to come in next, even who you want her Akatsuki partner to be! I'm open to it all. So please tell me all of you thoughts! Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	14. Chapter 14

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! I love you guys so much! All of your sweet reviews really make my day! Now before I forget, the torture 'genjutsu' I mentioned in the last chapter was created by **Somber Secrets**. I'm currently reading her (at least I believe said author is female) SasorixSakura story 'Behind'. It's so fantastically awesome that you should all run and read it! Though you can't really run so… Anyways I hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed making it!

**mayalice: **Thank you so much!

**Galatia: **Yes I made Yahiko pretty creepy, but it was needed!

**music1462: **Yes, everyone is upset that the boys' treatment of her. But it's all necessary for the development of the story!

**asdf: **You want me to bring in the Konoha and Suna boys, eh? Sounds like a great idea! But it may not be the boys you're thinking of…

**kaminariyoru: **It's okay! I think I have an idea of what to do anyways!

**Last to Cross: **Sakura is now fifteen years old. Itachi, Orochimaru, or Sasori? Sounds like a good idea. Though Orochimaru creeps me out a lot so he might not be chosen for the role, but I like the way you think.

**Yoi no Chi: **That's a very awesome idea Chi-chan! Seems like everyone wants her to leave for good, but alas she cannot. She as some unfinished business with Akatsuki that will soon be resolved! Yes! May the spring of youth make me awesome! (well awesome-er, lol I'm so conceited…)

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

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Sakura stared at Yahiko stunned. She couldn't believe what he just said. Hunting down the tailed demons? Was he serious? "Are you out of your mind!" Kisame roared as he stood from his seat, "The tailed demons will kill us! There's no possible way to tame those beasts without setting the whole world into chaos! It's only been a couple years since the last one was sealed away and half of Fire Country is still in ruins from that damn fox! And you want us to get all nine?"

He looked at Yahiko as if the boy was insane, and at this point Sakura was starting to believe he was. Yahiko smiled serenely at Kisame, "Now, now calm your self fish face. We won't be able to get the demons just yet, we still need more members. Once we do have our members, however, the hunting of the demons will commence. But until then you three are to scout for partners and possible Akatsuki allies. Kisame you'll stay here in Rain, Zetsu you will go to Grass Country, and Sakura you'll go to the Fire and Wind country. I want you three gone by the end of this week, there's no time limit to this mission but I expect to receive regular updates, meeting dismissed."

Then with a wave of his hand he turned away from the group and walked towards the large window in the room. The three left the two self appointed leaders to begin to pack for their long trip. "Yahiko doesn't seem to be well. **The boy is fucking insane.**" Zetsu said once they were outside the mansion gates. Kisame scowled at the people that stared at them, "The boy is off his rocker. Hunting those things down is going to kill us and may very well take the world down with us!" He growled out, scaring the civilians.

Sakura's brow furrowed, "Yes, Yahiko certainly isn't in a good state of mind. But you have to admit, he does aim high for what he wants." Kisame turned to her appalled, "Please don't tell me you're considering following that psycho's orders! Sakura, the boy's going to kill us with this suicide mission!" Sakura looked at him with a frown, "I'm not. I'm simply stating a fact. Anyway this could very well be what we need." Kisame blinked confused, "How would a crazy man's dream be what we need?"

Sakura nibbled on her lip, "Think about it Kisame, a world filled with peace, no pain." She held a hand up to halt Kisame's rant, "Just listen to me, the dream he has is a good one, it's just the way he wants it to come true that is at fault." She stopped and turned to them, "I want this dream to be real. I don't want others to live the way that we've lived, in war, surrounded by betrayal and death."

Sakura's lower lip trembled, "I don't want anyone else to suffer the way we have suffered. To be rejected by everyone. To be scorned for being different. To be punished for things out of their control. To be scarred by anger and grief. No one deserves to grow up the way we did. I may be young but I suffered so much already, I don't want anyone else to feel the way I've felt in my life. So let's just do as he says for now, maybe we can find an alternative way for this dream to come true. Maybe we can save future generations from this pain."

She looked up at the two hopefully, "We can make it come true. We can make it all go away. Maybe we'll save some poor souls along the way, who knows? I just want to give it a shot. You guys don't have to go along with it if you don't want to. But I'm going to take this chance to possibly help some people now, and in the future." Kisame sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He looked at her then away, "God I hate it when you get like that." She tilted her head to the side confused and he groaned, "Stop! Stop it! I'll go along with this, but not for those two bastards, for you. So just stop staring at me like that."

Sakura smiled and turned to the silent Zetsu, "**Goddamnit, don't look at us that way! We'll help! **We'd do anything for you Sakura." Sakura's lip began to tremble again, "Really?" They two men nodded and Sakura dropped her scythe to wrap them both in a hug. "Thank you! Thank you!" Kisame patted her head lovingly and Zetsu rubbed her back soothingly, "Anytime pink." Sakura pushed away from them and grabbed her scythe, "Come on! We need to pack and get a good night's rest! Our journey starts tomorrow!" Then she ran farther into the forest toward the waterfall cave.

Kisame ran a hand through his short blue hair, "For such a hardened ninja, she sure does have a kind heart." Zetsu nodded, "Indeed, it's simply her nature. Her double nature helps with it. Half of her is the hardened warrior that goes on missions and kills ruthlessly. But there is still the half of her that is still a child. She wasn't meant for this kind of life, to kill, rather she was meant to heal. But she has adopted it and so she shall live with it, the most we can do is help her along the way. Maybe this dream is what she was born for, I don't know. But I won't let those two dumbasses ruin this for her."

Kisame nodded solemnly, "Me either, she deserves more then what those two give her. I'd rather rip their throats out then help them, but Sakura would never forgive me and I couldn't live with her resentment. No, its better to just hate them silently until the day comes and she realizes her worth. Then she'll finally come on top and hopefully those two bastards will be six feet under. Until then I'll follow her and do as she asks, I'll do anything for her." He coughed and looked away from Zetsu who stared at him with wide eyes. He didn't mean to tell his biggest competition for Sakura's affection his true feelings for her, it just tumbled out.

Then Zetsu nodded slowly and looked towards where Sakura disappeared in the forest, "I feel the same. She can do whatever she wishes to me, as long as she's happy I'll be content." The two fell silent as their feelings for the small pink haired teen floated in the air between them. The trees parted and they saw the waterfall. Zetsu turned to his friend, "We'll help Sakura in her endeavor, but if it comes down to it we will take care of those two if her well being is compromised. I will rather live with her hate then to live with her broken." Kisame locked his jaw in anger, just imagining what those two bastards could do to her fragile confidence made his blood boil, "Agreed." Then he smiled showing off his pointed teeth, "But remember this, I'll do anything for her love."

Zetsu smirked, "As will I. Though we are comrades we will forever be enemies for Sakura's love." The two locked hands, the pact was made. They would fight for their small pink haired love until death. They would not back down from a fight if she was in harms way. She was their love and would forever be their love. Even if she never realized that she captured their hearts, they would follow her to the ends of the Earth to simply be by her side.

**o0o**

The next day Sakura hurriedly ran for the library. Though they had until the end of the week to prepare and leave, the trio decided that it was best to leave straight away. And so she needed to see Atsuko to not only inform her of her long mission, but to also find out what the older woman had wanted to show her. The library was as silent as always and Sakura was surprised to find that Atsuko wasn't behind the desk like she usually was.

'**Hmmm…maybe she's in the back room?' **Sakura shrugged and navigated through the library to the back room. When she opened the door she was mildly surprised to find Atsuko. Her long black hair was tied back in a low pony tail and she wore a simple black battle yukata with bandages wrapping around her arms and legs with the standard ninja sandals. The door slowly closed behind Sakura, "Ummm….Atsuko-san? You wanted me to come today?" Atsuko's gray eyes looked Sakura up and down, "Yes, I believe you have something of mine Sakura-chan."

Sakura cocked her head to the side confused, "What? No, I would never take anything from you Atsuko-san." Atsuko smiled, "Yes, I know. You weren't the one to take them from me but you are the one that they ended up with." Sakura frowned, what in the hell was Atsuko-san talking about? Atsuko snapped her fingers and immediately her arms burst into flames. Sakura's eyes widened and her mouth opened into a little 'o'. Atsuko smiled at her, "You have my scrolls Sakura."

Sakura reached down into the small pouch strapped to her thigh and retrieved the scrolls, "These are yours Atsuko-san? I had gotten them from a bandit some years ago…" With a flick of her wrists, Atsuko's arms extinguished themselves and she pushed away the offered scrolls. "I have no need for those my dear, I had learned how to use my powers long before those scrolls came into existence. When that man stole them from me I thought I'd never see them again, let alone find another person to master them. But it seems I was wrong on both accounts."

Sakura placed the scrolls back into her pouch, "The scrolls weren't hard for me to master…" Atsuko smiled and patted Sakura's head, "Of course not dear, it's takes a certain kind of person to master those scrolls." She smirked at Sakura, "Or should I say people?" Sakura gapped at her causing Atsuko to laugh, "Yes I know of your double nature. It's only natural because I have one too." Sakura's eyes brightened, "You have a second personality too Atsuko-san?"

Atsuko nodded, "Yes, few are born with it. And those that do have peculiar side effects like that friend of yours. His split nature caused his body to become split, though I have no idea where those appendages came from. And you have your pink hair. While I, on the other hand, had received some rather subtle marks." She pulled down the collar of her yukata and on her collar bone was two familiar marks to Sakura. The fire and water mark that was imprinted on all of the goods she had gotten on that faithful day sat proudly on Atsuko's skin.

Atsuko let go of her collar and her marks were covered once again. "Each double natured person has a special power, and based on their marks they can see what their hidden talent is. Your friend, I know, has a rather remarkable tie to nature. I am able to bend two elements to my will. But you are a mystery, what can pink hair signify for you?" She stared at Sakura curiously, "I do hope you find your special talent soon, the journey ahead of you will be a harsh one."

Sakura blinked, astonished and Atsuko laughed lightly, "Yes my dear, I know you are leaving. News travels around fast in this place." She pointed to Sakura's pouch, "Take care of those scrolls, there are no others like it for I had only made those few." Sakura's eyes widened, "You made them Atsuko-san?" Atsuko smiled and nodded, "Of course, I had to record how I learned to control these elements of mine, just in case I had a child who inherited my nature. But instead you came along."

Atsuko put her hands on either side of Sakura's face, "Such a sweet girl you are. This world doesn't deserve you." She stroked Sakura's cheeks and smiled sadly, "You have to come back my dear. You have to come back the same and yet not. Learn from others and learn from yourself. Try not to break too many hearts." Atsuko let her go and reached inside her own pouch and took out two scrolls and a bracelet. "These scrolls will help you keep in contact with your two friends, smear some of you blood on either one and infuse some chakra into them. Then have your friends do the same, the scroll is tied to those whose blood it contains, no one can read it but them and it will transport itself between its owners whenever you choose for it to."

Sakura put the scrolls into her pouch. Atsuko held up the bracelet, it was a simple silver bracelet with a small Sakura blossom charm hanging from it. "I was given this long ago by an old wise woman. She told me that this bracelet is intended for someone that I would meet on my travels. She didn't tell me what the bracelet was for nor who it was to be given to. Only that the bracelet would tell me who its owner is when she came along and that only its owner would be capable of unlocking its power. Take good care of it Sakura-chan; it may just help you figure out who you are supposed to be."

She clasped the bracelet onto Sakura's wrist, "There is one other thing I think I should tell you. A friend of mine is running around following his religion. He's a very sadistic man who curses a lot. He may try to rouse you into fighting him but don't let his foul mouth and rowdy nature fool you. He's a poor soul lost in his immortality, I don't know if you'll ever run into him, but on the off chance that you do try to get him to join you. He needs something to do with his life besides killing; a sense of purpose should benefit his lonely heart. His name is Hidan and he carries a three bladed scythe, also he wears a necklace that it an upside down circle inscribed within a circle. He rarely wears a shirt so you should see it."

She pulled Sakura into a hug, "I expect to hear about your travels Sakura-chan. Now go one and begin your mission, I'll always be here. And don't forget what I told you. I love you my dear, good luck on your travels." Sakura nodded wordlessly and left the library. **'Whoa, that was a lot to soak up in…an hour.' **Sakura nodded, _'Atsuko-san is so awesome…' _Inner pumped a fist into the air, **'Cha! Let's get this journey started! We can't let Atsuko-san down!' **Sakura pumped chakra into her legs and raced off towards her valley, Zetsu and Kisame were outside waiting for her.

"Did you finish with whatever you needed to do pink?" Kisame asked her as she stopped in front of them. "Yes, and I got these." She said as she pulled out the scrolls Atsuko gave her. "What are those?" Zetsu asked her. After explaining the scrolls and their abilities Kisame smiled, "Then let's make them ours!" He bit his thumb and smeared his bloodied finger across one scroll while Zetsu did the same to the other. Then Sakura marked each scroll and gave them to the boys, "Here, you guys take them first."

She looked up at her two friends, "I'm going to miss you two." She said quietly. Kisame patted her head, "And we'll miss you too pink." Zetsu nodded, "Yes, but we'll stay in contact. It won't be for long, we'll reunite someday soon." Sakura smiled at them, "I expect you two to keep that promise." Kisame gave her a toothy smile, "Course we will!" Sakura hugged them both then hefted her scythe up onto her shoulder, "Then I'll see you two soon." They nodded and Sakura saluted them, "Until then my friends!" Then the three left to begin their journey.

* * *

WOOO! I'm on a roll! So how was this? Did you all enjoy it? Please tell me your thoughts! Also, I would like for the suggestions to keep coming, as you can see, they help me update uber quickly! Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	15. Chapter 15

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! Two weeks of school left! Wooo! Junior year here I come!

**Galatia: **Yay! It's awesome! Zetsu and Kisame are pretty cute aren't they? They make you wish you had them don't they?

**mayalice: **Why thank you! Hidan may or may not appear you have to read to find out!

**Last to Cross: **Oh yes, he is very messed up. I read that in the manga/anime he and Konan were romantically involved with each other and so I made it a kind of love triangle between Konan and the two boys. The two boys are too crazy to have any followers! Atsuko and Hidan's relationship will be revealed, when exactly I don't know but it will be revealed.

**music1462: **It's okay! It's great to know you love this!

**asdf: **Thank you! I'll keep your suggested partners in mind once I actually think of who her partner should be.

**kaminariyoru: **Well, I like to keep things interesting!

**Yoi no Chi: **Making things youthful is my specialty! I especially loved Kisame and Zetsu last chapter too! You want little Gaara-chan? I'll see if I can squeeze him in somewhere, just for you. Because I'm so awesome and youthful like that.

**Minako-senpai: **Thank you! I myself have developed a hate for those two also. I'm so happy to find that you love the idea I have for the trio! But soon the trio may gain some more members….

**Cerridwen-Maiden: **I'm so happy you like it!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

'**Sand. Sand. Sand. Oh my gosh! Look! More fucking sand!' **Sakura growled at Inner, "Your sarcasm isn't necessary!" Inner crossed her arms and continued to grumble, **'But why does there have to be so much sand? It's getting into some very uncomfortable places! And why is it so hot?' **Sakura sighed loudly and swept some of her sweat drenched bangs away from her face, "Maybe because were in a desert?" Inner whimpered, **'This sucks!' **Sakura sighed and tuned Inner's complaining out.

Needless to say she was exhausted. Hiking around in the desert was _not _fun. She had relatively good protection from the scorching rays of the sun. Her wide brimmed straw hat offered plenty of shade for her face and the Akatsuki cloak helped regulate her body temperature. Konan made this cloak for any kind of weather. It wasn't only waterproof but when it was hot the cloak would help with expelling her body heat and it also helped tone down the heat of the sun. When it was cold the cloak would keep in her natural body heat and would prevent cold air from coming in contact with her skin. How Konan succeeded with such a feat was beyond Sakura, she was happy the annoying cloak came in handy though.

'**Where's the goddamn village? Isn't there supposed to be one around here?' **Sakura shrugged, "I don't know. I think so." Inner yelled and fell to the floor, **'I'm so hot!' **She rolled over and stared at the waterfall. Then it was like a light bulb flickered on above her head because Inner ran and dove into the water. She came up, teeth chattering slightly, with a triumphant grin on her face. Sakura growled and closed her mind off to Inner. Damn her stupid second self, damn her to hell.

Three weeks on her own. Three weeks of smooth sailing. Three weeks of feeling proud to be on a solo mission. Three weeks with a sense of independence, a new purpose in her life. And she gets lost in the desert. The fucking desert! It couldn't get any worse then that, or so she thought. Because not only was she hauling a big ass scythe in the scorching heat, but her second self decides to mock her by swimming laps in the waterfall inside her mind. She seriously just mind fucked herself, what kind of bullshit is that?

'**Ne, ne Outer! Such foul language you have! Why don't you come cool off with me in the waterfall? Oops! I forgot! You can't!' **Inner guffawed and tauntingly splashed the water, reveling in the cool relief it gave her. Sakura clenched her fists and imagined Inner being locked into a cage and thrown into a dark room. And it was with a sinister smile that when her imagination began working and Inner yelped in shock that Sakura came to the conclusion that she would find the Hidden Sand Village and somehow learn to reach into the deep recesses of her mind and tear Inner out so that she could beat her senseless.

Yes she was aware that she was basically thinking about kicking her own ass but what the hell? It was sure to be a fun task. Her eyes focused onto the real world and she saw something hazy in the distance. Huh… She was sure that wasn't there a moment ago. Whoa, that blob thing was big. It almost looked like a… Her eyes widened once she realized what she was looking at. The Hidden Sand Village! She'd finally found it! The village was still a hazy blob in the distance but Sakura was sure that she would reach it no later then nightfall.

With newfound vigor she picked up her pace as she headed towards the village. Nearly an hour later and she could now see that the hazy blob really was the Hidden Sand Village and not just a mirage. She could see faint little dots walking around the top of the large wall surrounding the village. She readjusted her scythe on her shoulder, straightened her back, and proudly walked into the gates of the village. When the guard asked her for her papers she gave them to him silently as she watched the other curious guards trying to take a peak at the odd little person in the black, red cloud patterned cloak.

The guard grunted and gave her the papers back. She could feel his curious eyes on her as she strode confidently into the village. _'Hmmm, where to go, where to go?' _Rounding a corner she spotted a small makeshift park. There was a set of swings, a slide, and a sandbox, and nothing else. She didn't really understand the reason for a sandbox in the middle of a desert but hey, her village had a community pool and it constantly rained over there so she couldn't judge. There was a large group of children kicking a ball around; she noticed that a small red haired boy was by himself in the sandbox watching the children play.

One boy kicked the ball to hard and it rolled past the girl he was kicking it to, the children all fell silent as the ball slowly rolled to a stop beside the sandbox. The little boy stood up, clutching his brown teddy bear to his chest, and grabbed the ball. He turned to give the other children back the ball when one little girl screeched, "Sabaku no Gaara has it!" Another boy ran up to the boy that kicked the ball and punched him hard in the shoulder. The boy yelped and clutched his injured shoulder, "I didn't mean to Jiro!" Jiro just glared at the boy, "Shut up! Come on let's go before the freak attacks us again!"

With that said all the children ran away and the small red haired boy let the ball fall from his hands. He clutched his teddy bear harder and slumped down into the sand. Sakura's chest constricted as she remembered how the kids at her own village treated her very much the same. She walked the small distance between her and the boy and crouched down until she was at his height. The boy flinched as her shadow fell over him and looked up at her with tear filled jade colored eyes.

She smiled at him, "Hello." He took in a shuddering breath and stared at her. She tilted her head to the side and held out her hand, "My name's Sakura, I'm new around here. What's your name?" He shyly put his small hand in her's, "My name is Gaara..." He shifted his toy a little so she could see its face, "This is Ruffy-ruffy-kun." Sakura petted the head of the bear, "What a beautiful name he has." Gaara's face lit up with a smile and Sakura felt her heart flutter a little. All she did was introduce her self and the boy was beaming with happiness, how hard was his life and how lonely was it?

"Would you mind showing me around Gaara-kun?" The boy stared at her with a look of sheer delight as he quickly stood and grabbed her hand. Sakura let him pull her around the village as he showed her everything in it. She ignored the shocked stares and worried whispers as the people of the village saw the two together. She was mildly surprised at the numerous disgusted and fearful faces the people sent toward her and the boy. Just what kind of life was this kid living?

He stopped in front of the Kazekage's Tower, "My daddy works here." He said quietly. Sakura glanced at the grand tower, "Really? What does he do?" Gaara shuffled his feet a little, "Everything. Daddy's the Kazekage…" Her eyes widened and she looked back at him. He was the Kazekage's son? Then why were the citizens of the village so cruel to him? Inner popped into the front of her mind, **'You mean you really don't sense it?' **Sakura blinked in confusion, what couldn't she sense? **'The boy, he's a jinchuuriki.'**

What? No, no! This little boy couldn't be a demon holder. She stared at Gaara; he was looking at the Kazekage Tower with a sorrowful look on his face. This little boy, he couldn't be much older than five! Such innocence, tainted by having a demon dwell inside of him. The thought brought tears to her eyes. Gaara tugged on her hand, "What's wrong Sakura-chan? Why are you crying?"

Sakura blinked away her tears and crouched so she was level with him, "Gaara-kun how old are you?" The boy tilted his head to the side, bewildered by the random question, "I'm five." Sakura bit her lip, "How long have the people been mean to you Gaara?" A deep look of concentration crossed his face, "No one's ever been nice to me, except for you." Sakura bit so hard on her lip that she actually broke the skin.

Gaara's eyes widened as blood dribbled down his new friend's lip. He reached forward and swiped his fingers across her lip and stared at the bright red substance smeared on his hand. "The sand doesn't let me bleed." He said after a moment, and then brought his hand up to his mouth to lick the blood. He blinked at the coppery taste and looked back up at Sakura. "It tastes weird." He mumbled to her. Sakura licked her still bleeding lip and nodded, "Yes, blood does have an odd taste doesn't it?"

Then she pulled him into a hug. Gaara was startled by the sudden contact but welcomed it nonetheless, no one ever hugged him besides Ruffy-ruffy-kun and Yashamaru, but even then it was rare. He slowly brought his arms up to wrap around her neck and he rested his head on her shoulder. "I could take you away from here." He heard her say and his eyes widened. Leave? Leave his family and village? Was that possible?

"When I leave here, whenever that may be, you could come with me. But only if you want to, if you wish to stay here with your family I would understand." She pulled away from him and smiled, "Is that okay with you?" Hesitantly Gaara nodded, "I would like to leave here…" Sakura watched as he clutched his bear tighter and she smiled again. "Then it's settled. Once I'm finished with my business here you'll leave with me. We'll travel the whole world!"

Gaara looked at her with a sparkle in his eyes, "Really?" She nodded, "Yup!" Then she put a finger to her lips, "But this has to stay a secret. We can't have other people knowing about this right?" He shook his head. And Sakura smiled and ruffled his hair, "Good. I have to go now, but I'll be back later okay? I promise." She stood and looked around then turned back to Gaara, "I'll see you later Gaara-kun!" She saluted to him then disappeared in a flurry of pink petals.

**o0o**

Sakura rolled the scroll up and put it back onto it's shelf with unnecessary force. Damn him! How could the Kazekage seal that demon in his own son? At the risk of his wife's life too! From what she read he knew the consequences of sealing the Tanuki into his son while still in the womb. Yet the man did it anyway! The damn Tanuki would have lasted at least another five years until it needed to be sealed into a different vessel. But did the Kazekage care? No!

He went on and did what ever the hell he pleased, killing his 'beloved' wife in the process. Beloved her pale white ass! The man cared nothing for her if he was willing to give up her life so easily. And if he cared so little for his wife, what did that mean with his feelings for his son? Was his son just some tool to be used for the village? And what of the boy's siblings? Did they care for him at all? A month of researching gave her more questions then answers.

Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose and inhaled deeply. There was no time to get angry. She still received valuable information from snooping in the Sand Village's hidden archives; this trip was not a waste. But one thing worried her, there were numerous accounts of attempted assassination of little Gaara-kun, all failed, but they still worried her. No one was dumb enough to try and take on a jinchuuriki, even one as young as Gaara. There was just too many variables concerning jinchuuriki to even consider taking one on.

First and foremost, the jinchuuriki's power depended on which tailed demon they were housing inside their body. Second, the type of seal used to trap the demon into their body. If the seal was weak, then the demon could have more control of its human host whereas if one had a strong seal the host would be able to keep the demon in check. This was also closely related to the third variable, the will of the host. A weak minded host would be able to be seduced by whatever lies their demon tempted them with. A fourth variable was if the host was also physically weak. A weak body couldn't contain a demon. If a weak host was ever chosen, once the demon was sealed inside the host's body would begin to hemorrhage and, if the demon was not immediately taken out and re-sealed into its inanimate container, ultimately die, thus releasing the demon to once again roam the lands.

So the numerous assassins were either really desperate for money or they had no idea that the boy was a jinchuuriki. She believed it was the former option. Now the real question was who sent the assassins after Gaara? No civilian would have the money these assassins were offered, and none would be brave enough to face the Kazekage's wrath if his son was murdered. So it was either a high ranking personnel in the Sand Village's council or it was the Kazekage himself. Sakura was unsure of which was the culprit.

Before she could grab another scroll a loud explosion sounded. She heard the people above her scrambling around in their sudden panic and she decided that now was probably the best time to leave. **'What do you think that was?' **Sakura shrugged as she teleported out of the underground library. Smoke was pluming from the top of a building not far from where she hid in the shadows. Sticking to the cover the shadows provided she crept over to the quickly dissipating smoke, her heart broke at what she saw.

It was a bloody mess. Gore was splattered all across the roof and there was a sobbing Gaara in the middle of it with sand strewn all around him. He was clutching the left side of his forehead and it took Sakura a moment to realize he was injured there. She ran toward him but was stopped when a sudden wall of sand blocked her. Gaara curled in on himself once his sand went into action, scared of another attack. "No more! No more! Just leave me alone!" He cried.

Sakura sucked in a breath at his desperate plea, "Gaara-kun," She said softly, "Gaara-kun it's me, Sakura." The boy stiffened and turned his head a little towards her, "Sakura-chan?" Sakura nodded vigorously, "Yes Gaara-kun, it's me. What happened?" Gaara turned his head towards her and she gasped at the blood seeping through his fingers, "Gaara-kun, you're hurt."

A sob wracked his small body and the wall of sand fell. Sakura quickly ran forward to inspect his head and gasped, carved on his forehead just above his left eye was the kanji for love. She touched it lightly and he flinched, "How did this happen?" She asked him as she rummaged through her pack for some gauze and antiseptic. He sniffed as a new stream of tears fell from his eyes, "Un-uncle Yashamaru! He t-tried to kill me! He-he exploded and the s-sand protected m-me!" He bawled.

Sakura's eyes flickered to the gore around them, well that explained the mess… She cleaned his forehead and sprayed the antiseptic onto it before wrapping his head with the gauze. Once she was finished Gaara bent down to grab his bear and clutched it to his chest tightly, "Uncle Yashamaru s-said that daddy asked h-him to do it…" Sakura narrowed her eyes and brought him into a hug. He curled up into her lap and cried. She let him and rubbed soothing circles into his back, "Shhh, shhh Gaara-kun. It's okay. No one's going to hurt you, not anymore. Do you still wish to leave with me?"

He nodded and pulled away from her to look her in the eye, "I would like to leave with you very much." Sakura nodded and glanced around, "Good, we can leave right now and-" She stopped when she felt a hand on her cheek; she looked down and saw Gaara's tearful face. "But I can't leave with you Sakura-chan. But Shukaku says that it's bad if I leave with you. He said that daddy would send the mean people after you too; I don't want that Sakura-chan."

He sniffed a little, "Shukaku says I'm tied to this place and can't leave anyways." Sakura shook her head, "No, no. I can't leave you here! You have to leave with me!" Inner sadly looked at Sakura, **'Outer he's right, it's too dangerous for him to leave the village now. His father will be keeping even closer tabs on him, not to mention Yahiko wants to kill him for the Bijuu.' **Sakura held onto the little boy in her lap tighter, it was a lose-lose situation. Leave him and he's at the mercy of his father or take him and he is in danger of her once sane friend. What was she to do?

She blinked when a stuffed bear was suddenly thrust into her face. "Take Ruffy-ruffy-kun with you Sakura-chan." Sakura grabbed the small bear and kissed the top of Gaara's head, "I will come back for you Gaara-kun, I promise, I will come back." Gaara stood from her lap and kissed her cheek, "Goodbye Sakura-chan." Sakura stood and held the bear tighter, "Goodbye Gaara-kun." Then she disappeared in a flurry of Sakura petals just as ANBU arrived on the roof.

**o0o**

Sakura left the village with a bitter taste in her mouth. The Kazekage was on her black list, right after her sister's killer. She would avenge the mistreatment Gaara was given, she would make him feel as much pain as his son felt and more. "How kind of you to promise the child that you would save him." Sakura spun on her heel and saw a boy, not older then twenty, a couple feet behind her. "Such an odd girl you are, but you're strong. Tell me, do you believe art is eternal?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow at the man. He had flaming red hair, much like Gaara's, a bored look on his face, was probably 5'8 in height and had a lean form. "I believe in all kinds of art." She told him after studying him for a moment. He cocked his head to the side, "Oh? Interesting. I've heard of your organization and wish to join you." Both of Sakura's eyebrows shot straight up into her hairline. Say what? Was she just about to recruit another member? "What's your name?" She asked him. The man gave a small smile, "My apologies, my name is Sasori, Akasuna no Sasori."

* * *

LE GASP! Did I really just do that? Why yes, yes I did. Please please please please please please please please PLEASE! Leave me a review! Tell me all of your thoughts and suggestions. I really do appreciate then all. Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	16. Chapter 16

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! I sorry for making you wait. But I'm now out of school and I'll be able to update faster now! I hope you all enjoy this!

**Galatia: **Well I aim to make every chapter awesome! Gaara's past is really a lonely one. Yes Sasori's appearance is the best part! I don't know why but every time I introduce a new member I feel as if I must leave it as a cliffhanger. Maybe it's because I want some suspense? (though there wasn't really any suspense last chapter...) Anyways thank you for the review!

**kaminariyoru: **Yes, Gaara is such a sad being for the first thirteen years of his life…

**mayalice: **The red headed hottie…. *sigh* Sucks he isn't real… I'm still unsure of whether or not Orochimaru will become a member. There's no denying that he casts a major role in the Naruto world, so I think that I just might have to put him in. How this will come to be in my story is still hazy, but I'm sure I'll think of something good for you all.

**Last to Cross: **If you loved that then you are definitely going to love how I continue on with this story and the small side relations she makes. Sasori is one of my favorites in Akatsuki (okay they're all my favorite but how could you not love all the hot psychos!) and I'm definitely going to have him recruited!

**asdf: **Sakura is waaaay older then Gaara. There's a ten year difference between her, Gaara, Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, etc. With an 11-13 year difference between her and Gaara's siblings and Team Gai.

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Sakura stared at the red head utterly confused as walked farther and farther away from her. After he introduced himself he had began to walk away, like he didn't just recruit himself to Akatsuki. After about going six or seven feet away from her he spun around angrily, "Well? Are you coming or not? I don't plan on waiting for your stubby little legs to catch up." Her mouth opened in shock as he began to walk away again. She scrambled after him, "Wait a minute!" She said as came up behind him, "What the hell is going on?"

Sasori rolled his eyes, "I'm getting you out of the desert." He said. Sakura squinted at the back of his head, "Why?" The red head sighed and turned to her, "Why wouldn't I help you? We are going to be in the same organization after all." Sakura blinked, "We are?" Sasori resisted the urge to smack his forehead, "Yes. I'm planning on joining this 'Akatsuki'. But to do that I need someone that's already a member to help me get in, and that's you. Now come on, let's get out of this retched desert."

He continued on and Sakura slowly followed him. _'Ne Inner, do you trust this guy?'_ Inner scratched her chin thoughtfully, **'Yeah, I don't know why, but I trust him.'** Sakura bit her lip; if Inner trusted him then she would too. Inner was usually never wrong when it came to trusting people. She pet the head of her newly acquired toy bear and sighed. Should she have left poor little Gaara there? Probably not, but what other choice did she have?

He seemed to be able to hold his own against the mediocre assassins his father sent after him. She had no doubt in her mind that Yahiko and Pein would have torn the boy apart. And she wouldn't have been able to bare the thought of the sense of betrayal Gaara would have felt once he realized she was the reason Akatsuki killed him. How many little kids were like Gaara? Were all the jinchuuriki mere children? Did Yahiko know this? Did he even care?

She clenched her teeth and hugged the bear to her chest; Yahiko probably didn't give a damn about who he crushed, as long as he achieved his goal. Lost in her thought she failed to notice that Sasori stopped and she smashed her face against his surprisingly hard back. She stumbled back in surprise and lightly touched her nose, it throbbed painfully but at least it wasn't bleeding. Inner gasped and cursed, **'What the fuck? Is his back made out of wood or something? The damn thing is hard! It was like walking into a goddamn tree!' **

Inner clutched her face as she continued to complain. Sakura looked up at Sasori, "Why'd we stop?" He glanced down at her before unstapping his pack and setting it on the floor, "You're tired, we'll camp here tonight." Then he proceeded with making a camp, after watching him a moment longer Sakura followed suit. Soon their camp was made and they had a small fire burning. She could feel Sasori's steady stare as she pet Ruffy ruffy-kun. Tired of his stare she looked up and stared at his somewhat dull brown eyes as he studied her. "Why?" He said.

Sakura cocked her head to the side, "What do you mean?" He laced his fingers together, "Why were you so nice to that boy? Why promise something you aren't going to keep?" Anger flashed in the pinkette's eyes that mildly surprised Sasori. "Gaara deserves nothing but kindness!" She growled, "His father sealed a demon in him and killed his mother in the process! He's had assassins after him for nearly his whole life all sent by his father! He has no idea why people are so cruel to him! All he wants is to be loved…" Her voice quieted and she held the bear tighter.

"He's only five but he's seen so much hate, so much cruelty. I will keep my promise. I'll take him away from there as soon as I can. I wish I could have taken him now, but it's too dangerous. But one day I will save him. When I make a promise I keep it, I'll ever go back on my word…" She slumped down on the sand and curled up, "I'll save Gaara, and just you wait and see; he'll be loved and happy. I'll kill the ones that gave him all his pain" Sasori stared at Sakura until she fell asleep then turned towards the direction Suna was, _'Look's like the Kazekage made a new enemy. I wonder how this will play out…' _

**o0o**

The next day they reached the forest by midday and Sakura was grateful for that. The sand was beginning to chaff and Inner was constantly complaining about it. They stopped by a river and Sasori scouted the perimeter so that she could have some privacy. She stripped herself then walked into the river, the cool water felt heavenly on her lightly burned skin. She dunked her head under the water and began to furiously scrub away the sand in it. Soon she was free of sand and simply lay in the water for a couple of minutes.

With a sigh she pulled herself out of the water and grabbed the towel she set out and wrapped herself in it. Picking up her clothes she shook them out to rid them of sand. She just pulled on her pants and bra when Sasori walked into the clearing. She froze and stared at him wide eyed while he eyed her scarred back. Then Inner took control of her and threw a couple of kunai at Sasori, "**Hentai!**" Sasori dodged the kunai and turned around, "Hurry up and finish getting dressed you brat!" He hissed.

Sakura quickly pulled her shirt on, "I'm decent…" Sasori turned back around and glared at her, "Took you long enough." He grumbled. Inner bristled, **'Bitch! Who does he think he is?' **She growled. Sakura ignored Inner and began to brush her hair. She looked at the long tresses and grabbed a kunai and slashed at her hair. Sasori raised an eyebrow, "What are you doing?" She threw some of the cut hair down, "It's getting annoying…" She mumbled.

Sasori rolled his eyes, "Let me do it before you ruin it." He said and walked up to her. She handed him the kunai then turned so her back was facing him. He grabbed the brush next to her and began to brush her hair to get all the tangles out before cutting it. He would occasionally run his hand through her hair before precisely cutting pieces of her hair. Her eyes fluttered closed at the feeling. It's been so long since someone brushed her hair…

Sasori stopped and lightly touched her back, "Did these hurt when you got them?" Her eyes snapped open and she looked up at him and shrugged, "The pain was bearable, the reason I got them hurt more then the actual wounds." She ran a hand through her now shoulder length tresses and smiled at him, "Thank you for cutting my hair for me. It would have been a butchered mess if it wasn't for you."

He gave her a curt nod then returned to his belongings. Sakura rummaged through her pack and retrieved her canteen. Popping the cap she refilled it in the river. "Sasori?" The red head grunted, "Why do you want to join Akatsuki?" Sasori paused in repacking his belongings for a moment as he contemplated the question. "I don't really know why, maybe to find more puppets? I'm not really sure…" He blinked as he realized he had no real reason to join this anti-war organization.

Joining to find more puppets was unnecessary. He was already able to find worthy puppets abroad. He could say that he wanted to join because he lost his own parents to war, but it would be a lie. He had no passion for revenge nor was he very upset about his parents' death like when he was a child. So why did he approach this girl? He couldn't explain it. All he knew was that when he saw her he had this sudden urge to join her. To travel with this young girl, to know her, befriend her. Sasori wasn't one for relationships, but he wanted one with her.

He shook his head to rid himself of his musings and grabbed his pack, "Hurry up if you want to keep traveling today." Sakura quickly strapped on her pack and grabbed her scythe and followed Sasori farther into the forest. As she was walking she heard a faint tinkling sound. Curious she stopped and the sound faded away. She continued after Sasori and the sound returned. **'Where the hell is that sound coming from?' **Inner asked her. It took Sakura a moment but she realized that the sound was coming from her.

But why would she be making that sound? She had nothing that would make such a sound. She brought her hand up to scratch her head when she saw it. Her bracelet that Atsuko-san had given her now had more than just one lone cherry blossom charm. There were three charms now accompanying it; a black and white flower, a sword that looked remarkably like Samehada from the scales wrapped in bandages to the small skull on the hilt, and the kanji for love.

She froze when she saw them. There was no possible way for these charms to be clasped to her wrist. And they definitely shouldn't symbolize three people in her life. **'Maybe this is the power Atsuko-san was talking about,' **Inner said as she stared at the small charms, **'But I wonder what these charms are for, what do they mean? **Sakura examined the charms a moment longer before letting her arm fall back to her side. Whatever the charms meant would be revealed in the future, she was sure of this. For now she had to worry about Sasori, her insane friends, the miserable child she left behind, and everything else fate was sure to throw at her.

* * *

CHIKA POW! ...Yeah I don't know why I did that... Anyway! Yes it is a short chapter and I apologize for that. But I couldn't help it. I just got this feeling to end it there so I did. I also want to apologize for the somewhat late update. I was stressing over my Honors Geometry final and I just found out I passed (yayness!) today. And not only did I take and pass that final yesterday but my older sister graduated high school yesterday too. So there's been a lot of scrambling around to prepare for her graduation and for her going away party next month since she's leaving for college in August. Now enough about my life! Did you like this chapter? Please tell me all you thoughts and much appreciated suggestions in a review! Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chincana


	17. Chapter 17

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! How are you all? Just to tell you ahead of time, Sakura and Sasori traveled around Fire and Wind Country before they decided to enter Konoha. I do hope you all enjoy this chapter!

**Galatia: **I know, I felt bad about leaving it so short but I promise to make this one longer! You know what; I just want all the Akatsuki members!

**Anonymous Reviewer: **Thank you! Ages? Sure I'll put them down for you! Sakura is currently 15. Yahiko and Pein are 18. Kisame and Zetsu are 20. Sasori appears to be twenty but we all know he's fairly old, I estimate him to be about early 40's in this current time frame. If you're also wondering about the original main Naruto characters then Gaara, Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata, etc. are all about 5. Kankuro is 6. Temari, Neji, Tenten, and Lee are 7.

**mayalice: **Thank you! I have an idea of what the bracelet is and I hope I'll be able to get the idea I have for it across to you guys. Orochimaru will, ultimately, become a member. Yes, I would so love to have most of the guys real besides just Sasori.

**Last to Cross: **I really liked how I did the bonding time between the two also! Yes, back made of wood! She does know that he is a puppeteer (he really doesn't try to hide it) but she does not know that he uses humans as puppets or the fact that he himself is a puppet. Yes, Sakura will be allowed in because Akatsuki isn't seen as a crime organization yet and they are only known in the general area of Ame at this point in time.

**Yoi no Chi: **Oh thank you! I was hoping the bracelet part wasn't to cliché. Damnit! How'd you know Atsuko is an immortal? Oh well! Great minds think alike I guess!

**L.M.D.A.A: **It's okay! You reviewed now!

**animemusicnut: **Oh thank you! I wish I was able to get that many reviews. Yay! I have cookies and milk! I hope I can keep up the awesomeness and the youthfulness (can't forget the youthfulness!) until the end of this story.

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

"There it is." Sasori said. Sakura peered around him and saw the great village. She took a moment to study the large walls surrounding the village; it seemed more clean cut then hastily put together Sand Village's walls. People were filtering in and out of the massive gate, most civilian with the exception of a ninja team every now and then. Sakura blinked, so this was the famed Konohagakure. She walked passed Sasori and to the sentry just inside the gate. She wordlessly handed the guard her papers as she looked around.

It seemed a great deal less civilized than her own village. There were no grand buildings besides the Hokage Tower that she could see in the distance, nor was there anything mechanical. Ame was, by far, the most advanced technological village ever. So how was it that this rural village was able to surpass Ame? It could be the fact that this was a rather large village that has contact with nearly every village in Fire and Wind Country, as compared to her small isolated village, but she couldn't help but feel as if this wasn't the reason.

The guard gave her the papers back then took Sasori's. Sasori looked impatient for the man to check him through and roughly took his papers back when the man gave them to him. Sakura rolled her eyes and continued on into the village not bothering to see if Sasori would follower her or not. People bustled past her; some gave her a quizzical look while others didn't even bat an eye. As she went further into the village she could see the famed Hokage Monument just behind the Hokage Tower.

The four faces of Konoha's Hokages were carved beautifully into the mountain. She knew that those carvings had to have taken a long time to create. The sculptor must have been a proud man; to have created such a thing was sure to have been a meticulous task. Sasori sighed as he walked up beside her, "Such beautiful art. It is sure to last beyond this life time." Sakura smiled, "Yes, perhaps it shall. Well come on, let's find an inn then begin our research." She said and turned away from the monument.

It wasn't long before they found a cheap inn and got a room. She thanked the inn keeper and tossed the keys to Sasori, "Go check out the room. Play with you puppets; I'm going to look around a little more. Oh and can you take these with you too?" She said and took of her straw hat and cloak and handed them to him. Sasori gave her a curt nod and headed up the stairs to their room while Sakura headed back outside. She wandered around the village aimlessly and found her self on a red bridge.

She walked to the railing and jumped up to sit on it. She kicked her feet over the edge and watched the water flow slowly beneath her. The wind blew and swept some leaves into the river causing ripples to form. She watched as the leaves spun slowly in the water and sighed. Reaching inside her pack she took out Zetsu's scroll that arrived a couple months after leaving Sunagakure. Pulling it open she smiled at the familiar script.

_Hello Sakura,_

_I hope your mission is going well. I've recently learned something that may peak your interest, do you remember that snake like man that was your sensei's teammate? He has been hiding out in Grass after defecting from Konoha. I've just recruited him to Akatsuki. Do you think Yahiko will be satisfied? He better be because if I have to recruit more members like this snake then I'll eat him. It seems I must go Orochimaru is rather eager to get to Ame. I hope to see you soon._

_Zetsu_

'**Well, it seems he's having fun!' **Inner said. Sakura chuckled to herself, _'You enjoy other's pain don't you?' _Inner smirked, **'Why yes, yes I do.' **Sakura rolled her eyes and put the scroll back into her pack. This was a rather interesting turn of events; she never dreamed that the pale man would come once again into her life. Though she had only brief contact with him when she had first met him she couldn't shake the sense of unease she felt around him. She couldn't hope to imagine what caused him to defect.

Her brow furrowed, it seemed like Akatsuki was only obtaining defected Nin. No one cared much for Rouge Nin; they would rather see the Nin in the depths of hell then roaming the land of the living. Did this mean that they would become a criminal organization? She certainly hoped not, though chasing after Bijuu was certain to put Akatsuki into the category. She cursed silently under her breath, when did wanting peace become so twisted? She ran a hand through her short locks in her frustration.

She was momentarily surprised at the sudden loss of feeling in her hair before she remembered that she had Sasori cut it off for her. She fingered her hair a moment before sighing; Kisame and Zetsu had liked her hair long, something about her looking innocent. Inner snorted, **'We lost what innocence we had long ago.' **Sakura shrugged lightly, _'Yes we have haven't we? I don't feel remorseful about that though, I'm happy we are done with our innocence. Being innocent means you are naïve, weak, a burden. I'm done with those feelings. People will take me seriously soon enough, we'll be able to help change the world for the better, and if not at least we'll help some lives along the way.'_

Inner grunted and the two lapsed into silence as they enjoyed the sweet caress of the sun on their pale skin. The sound of children laughing had her open her eyes to discreetly watch the children run behind her. A group of giggling girls was chasing a small black haired child who was dragging a blonde boy behind him. "Hurry up Naruto! If they get any closer I'm ditching you!" The blonde teared up, "No Sasuke! Don't leave me with them!" Sasuke grunted, "Then hurry up!" The two boys dashed down the streets and soon the giggling girls were no longer heard.

Sakura laughed, who knew little girls could be so bold? **'Did you feel it?' **Sakura's laughter died down at Inner's somber expression. _'Feel what?' _Inner bit her lip, **'Then you really can't sense them?' **Sakura frowned, not liking how familiar this conversation was becoming. _'Which one? Which one was it?' _Inner hesitated and Sakura growled at her, _'Which one!' _Inner sighed, **'The blonde he has the Kyuubi.' **Sakura narrowed her eyes and looked towards were the children disappeared.

It seemed like her earlier suspicion was true, the containers of the demons are mere children. Several more were somewhere in the world. Innocence tainted without their consent. Were the ones that did this to them regretful? Did they even care? Surely they felt something, even just a speck of guilt for doing this. No matter, the ones to do this would be sure to feel her wrath soon enough. Hopping off the railing Sakura continued on into the village, perhaps she would stumble across something.

Her eyes settled on a sign at the crossroad at the end of the bridge. _'Hmm…a trip to the training grounds sounds good to me.' _Turning left she continued down the road until she hit a dirt path, following it into the forest she soon reached Training Ground 7. There were three wooden poles in the middle with some sort of memorial stone just behind them. She walked towards the stone and ran her hand over the some surface, tracing her finger across the soft indentations of the names it held.

Her eyes fell upon the name _Namikaze Minato_. **'Isn't that the Fourth Hokage?' **Sakura hummed in response. Just below his name was _Uzumaki Kushina_. She blinked. Uzumaki? She had heard of that name somewhere before. She shook it off and turned away from the stone. She made multiple shadow clones. One shadow clone gave her the typical salute that they always seemed to give her, "Hey boss! Ready to train?" Sakura smiled, "Yes, but let us split into separate groups this time. We will be working on endurance, chakra, evasion, and elemental control. Evasion group is with me, the rest of you disperse into your respective groups and begin training."

A chorus of 'hai' was her response as three quarters of her clones separated to train. The rest formed a circle around her and she pulled her Ame headband over her eyes. After tightening it over her eyes she let her hands fall to her sides and breathed deeply. She gave a short nod and heard the clinking of metal all around her. Then she felt the air shift as a barrage of kunai was thrown at her. She jumped to the side then flipped backward to avoid the downward slash of scythe.

She let her wrist blades spring lose and blocked the slash to her abdomen. She fell to the ground and felt the air shift as a sword slashed at where she once was dispersing the clone she had blocked. She slashed at the shadow clone's legs effectively getting rid of it also. She quickly rolled out of the way as another scythe nearly cut her in half. She grabbed the wrist of one clone and threw it at several others. Standing up straight she smiled and motioned for more to come at her.

**o0o**

Sakura sucked in a breath as the last of her clones disappeared in a puff of smoke. She felt its exhaustion transfer instantly to her and groaned internally. The sun was setting so she shouldered her scythe and began her trek back to the inn. She checked over her chakra and smiled; she had expended nearly all her chakra to maintain the clones and their activities and was sure to be sore in the morning. If her hypothesis was correct then by the time her reserves were fully restored it should be at least four times the size that it currently was.

If not then her chakra would probably be stunted…. She shook off the thought, certainly that wouldn't happen. Though just to be sure she picked up her pace and soon found herself in front of the inn. Trudging up the steps she walked inside the room. She walked to the second bed, ignoring a staring Sasori, and flopped onto the soft, plush sheets. "You smell." Sakura grumbled incoherently at Sasori's comment before rolling off the bed and into the bathroom.

Stripping herself of her sweat drenched clothes she hopped into the warm water. She let the water run over her body for a couple minutes before grabbing the shampoo and began to wash her hair. With that done she set to washing her body, once the last bit of suds ran down the drain she turned the water off. She wrapped her body into a towel then ran a brush through her hair before leaving the room. Sasori raised an eyebrow at her lack of attire and she simply flipped him the bird before pulling out a spare change of clothes.

She gave Sasori a pointed look and he rolled his eyes before turning his back to her. She quickly pulled on her underwear then dressed in a pair of black slacks with a red tank top. She fell onto the bed face first with a content sigh and Sasori turned back around to stare at her. "I'm guessing you had a fun time in the village." Sakura grunted and rolled onto her side to stare back at him. Sasori tilted his head to the side as he examined her, "Did you exhaust your a chakra again by training?" She nodded and he sighed. "If you keep straining yourself you won't be fit to be ninja."

Sakura pouted and Sasori rolled his eyes, "Oh hush. I'll make the drink for you but this is the last time, you have to learn to control yourself." He reached into his pack and took out a small bowl and some herbs. Walking into the bathroom he got some hot water then but the herbs into it. While mixing the drink he glanced at Sakura whose eyes were fluttering closed. He rolled his eyes again then nudged her until she was sitting up and put the bowl to her lips. She drank the concoction without complaint at the bitter taste then fell back onto the bed with a huff.

Sasori put the herbs and bowl away and snorted when he heard soft snores coming from the bed beside him. He was unsure of how he survived living with this girl for so long. Her odd tendency to space out worried him at first, but then he came to realize that it was a normal occurrence for the small pink haired girl. She also had a weird infatuation about peace, though she was certainly one to hold a grudge. He had hoped that somewhere along the way of traveling with her that the reason he wanted to be with her would arise, but no such thing happened.

The insistent feeling only intensified. And now he was feeling nervous about the secret he was keeping from her, though he couldn't fathom why. He glared at his hands and clenched them in his frustration. After so many years, why was this girl brining out all of his emotions? He was content with collecting his puppets and nothing else, so why was he drawn to her? Quiet murmuring brought his attention to the sleeping pink haired girl next to him. Sakura rolled to her side as her murmurs ceased and she resumed sleeping fitfully once again. With a sigh Sasori laid down onto the bed, maybe it didn't matter what these feelings meant, if they hadn't killed him yet then he would live with them for a while longer.

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I know that this chapter isn't that much bigger than the last and I apologize. Please tell me any suggestions you have for the story, they really are appreciated. Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	18. Chapter 18

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! A lot last of questions popped up last chapter about the relationship between Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke was originally a kind child and the massacre hasn't happened just yet so he nice right now. He and Naruto are friends right now but Naruto is still relatively lonely because he and Sasuke rarely see each other. Their relationship will develop the same way as in the show with them being rivals but they have a much better past together than in the show. Now that that's all cleared up onto the next chapter!

**L.M.D.A.A: **Lol, I'm happy you were able to read my update at such a late (or would that be considered early?) time despite the fact that you were tired.

**DarkItachi22: **I just want to thank you once again for you review.

**Melyss: **Thank you! And we'll see what happens with Gaara.

**Black-footed: **Yes I know having the two friends is very surprising. But I think that the two of them should have been friends in the beginning and so it shall be! I was already thinking about Kisame recruiting Kakuzu, but having her meet the Third sounds like a good idea.

**mayalice: **I'm not sure if she'll meet all the little boys, but I may have her meet my favorite ones.

**Baka-no-desu-21: **Itachi is correct! Sasori's too dense to figure it out himself so I'll have to force him to realize that soon enough. I'm happy you think it's a great sakuxmulti fic, I was nervous about how well it would turn out.

**Livieli: **Sakura and her comrades will have a epic blow out with Yahiko and Pein, just you wait and see.

**animemusicnut: **Oooh! Marshmallow! *nom nom nom* Hmmmm, Chunin Exams? I guess I could do that. But I think I'll put a poll up for it so that I can see who all would like for that to happen.

**kusukusu225:** Or Jiraya! Because no one wants an old pervert like him running around peeping on girls and making stories about the girls he peeps on.

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

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Sakura mentally groaned once she woke up. Her sore limbs were stiff and didn't want to move. Maybe she had gone a little far on that training session. She counted to three then quickly sat up and silently hissed at the pain. "You shouldn't strain yourself." She opened her eyes to stare a Sasori who was fixing one of his puppet's hands on his bed. He moved each digit carefully and when one refused to flex he would set to shaving tiny bits of wood to make it cooperate. She ignored his advice and slowly brought her hands down onto the bed then she moved her legs to the side of the bed.

Sasori rolled his eyes at the sound of her whimper. Sakura clenched her teeth together and forced her self to stand up, she attempted to walk but fell, her face hitting the side of Sasori's bed then banging into the floor with a loud 'thump'. Her whimpers intensified and Sasori could just make out 'I think I broke my nose' between her cries. With a sigh he set the hand down and looked down at Sakura's crumpled form beside his bed. A small puddle of blood was forming under her head which led him to believe that she had indeed broken her nose.

He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment before going to the bathroom and retrieving some toilet paper. He came back to her crumpled form and picked her up; setting her on her bed he cleaned her face of blood then rolled some toilet paper and stuffed them into both of her nostrils. He then set to cleaning the floor and disposing of the soiled rags he used to clean the floor. He looked at her pouting face to find the toilet paper he stuffed into her nose was completely red; he exchanged them for clean toilet paper then stared at her slightly crooked nose. It used to be beautiful, a perfectly straight button nose… But she just had to ruin it by falling on her face didn't she?

"Is it really bad?" She asked him. Her voice was a little nasally because of the toilet paper, which was yet again red. He quickly put in clean toilet paper before replying. "You definitely broke it, would you like me to reset it?" She gave a small nod and Sasori put his hand on her nose, she winced at the contact. As quickly as he could he reset it and was surprised at the sudden flood of blood her nose let loose, it had even driven out the toilet paper. He quickly brought a cloth to her nose to stop the blood flow. A couple of minutes later and it stopped completely. He carefully cleaned her face again before leaving the room to ask the inn keeper if he had an ice pack.

When he returned to the room he found Sakura going through a series of odd facial expressions, her eyes glazed over. He sighed when he realized she was spacing out yet again. He wrapped the ice pack in some cloth before carefully putting it across her face; she flinched a little but otherwise stayed lost in her mind. He sighed again and wondered how he ended up with her and how he somehow ended up in this role. Honestly, it was as if he were her mother. For all her talk about helping and taking care of others she was hardly able to take care of herself.

He would always have to catch something for meals or else she would never eat. And if he didn't have the small home made recipes his mother had taught him long ago for both physical wounds and chakra restoration the girl would most likely be dead by now. How she lived to be fifteen was a mystery for him but he was rather proud to say he was the reason for her to live to her sixteenth birthday which was coming up in the next couple months. Sakura blinked and her eyes lost the glaze and focused instead on him. She smiled sheepishly, "I'm sorry." She mumbled against the ice pack. He shrugged and helped her lay down. He then went to make another medicinal concoction to help ease her sore muscles.

He lifted her head to help her drink the mixture before laying her head back down. He frowned at her clothes, "You're lucky that shirt's blood red or else you'd have to throw it away. She smiled and her eyes began to flutter closed, he sighed in relief once she fell asleep. Maybe now he would have some peace without having to tend to her needs. Grabbing the puppet hand he went back to carefully carving the small notches to help the fingers curve and flex. Once he was done he re-sealed it and turned back to Sakura. Lifting the ice pack he sighed at the purple tinge her nose and cheeks were donning.

Her flawless pale skin was now tainted with the ugly purple bruise. Setting the ice pack back onto her face he took out more damaged puppet parts, now would probably be the only time he would have to fix them without her interrupting him for pointless tasks and questions every five minutes, and so he set to work on fixing his beautiful puppets.

**o0o**

Sakura woke with a start the next day. She looked around wildly then settled once she saw the stray puppet parts on the bed next to her, then she frowned, _'Goddamnit he drugged me to sleep again!' _She grumbled lightly to her self and stood, glad that she was able to. She stumbled her way into the bathroom and glared at the purple faced, blood stained being in the mirror with short pink hair that was standing on end in every direction. She growled lightly at the foreign person then jumped into the shower. Vigorously scrubbing at her hair then carefully tending to her back. The water stung a little when it fell on her face, similar to when taking a warm shower with sunburns.

She shut the water off then wrapped her hair and body in a towel before leaving the room. She quickly pulled on her underwear before dressing in black shorts and pulling on a short sleeved black shirt. Grabbing her scythe she left the inn and began to walk around the village. She got more stares this time and tried her best to ignore them. Her stomach growled and she clutched it with her free hand. **'Fooood!' **Inner moaned she perked up when she smelled the stray scent of ramen, **'Follow it! Follow it! Get me some food now!' **

Sakura rolled her eyes at Inner's behavior and demand but complied nonetheless. She soon found her self in front of a small stand that read Ichiraku on the front. It was nothing more but a small bar that seated eight people with the cook behind the counter and a young girl around her age running around helping what Sakura could only guess as her father by setting two bowls of ramen in front of the two costumers already there and cleaning the counters. Sakura didn't have to move the banner like cloth before stepping inside seeing as it was a good three inches above her head.

She stiffened when she saw the blonde boy from before happily slurping at his ramen. The man with him tensed slightly and Sakura sat down two seats away from the boy and set her scythe on the floor next to her. "One bowl of miso ramen please." She asked the chef who nodded and began to make the dish. She swung her feet slightly as she waited, watching the boy practically inhale his food. He set the bowl down with a bang and grinned, "Another bowl please Ojii-san!" The chef chuckled as his daughter gave Sakura her bowl, "Sure thing Naruto!" He said and began to make the boy another bowl of ramen.

Sakura muttered an 'itadakamatsu' before splitting her chop sticks and began to eat. The man beside the boy smiled, "Naruto that's going to be your fifth bowl of ramen!" The boy smiled up at him, "But I'm still hungry Iruka-sensei and Ichiraku's ramen is the best!" He cried. Sakura choked a little on her ramen when she heard the boy had already eaten four bowls. She glanced at the empty bowl in front of him; the bowl was not a small one. Where did he put it all? The boy turned around when he heard her choke and his eyes sparkled once they landed on her.

He gasped lightly when he saw her bruised face and she stared at him startled. The two stared at each other for a moment before Sakura let out a what. Naruto pointed at her face, "What happened to you? Did you get beat up?" She raised an eyebrow before remembering the giant bruise that stretched across her face and pouted, "No…" She mumbled and began to pick at her ramen. Naruto cocked his head to the side confused, "Then how did you hurt yourself?" She sniffed a little, debating on whether or not to tell him.

She glanced at his curious cerulean eyes and sighed, "I was training the other day and exhausted myself. When I woke up yesterday I could hardly move and when I tried to walk I fell and broke my nose…" She mumbled. The boy blinked then laughed she sputtered as she stared at him. "Don't laugh! It hurt a lot and there was so much blood!" She frowned when he laughed even harder and sniffed, "How humiliating, a pipsqueak like you is laughing about me breaking my nose." The boy's laughter stopped and his face turned red, "I'm not short!"

Sakura glanced down at his feet that were dangling a foot above the ground then to her own feet that her dangling at half the distance. "Kid, you're shorter than me that means you're _really _short." He puffed his cheeks out then sighed in defeat, "I know…" Sakura chuckled once he set his attention on the steaming bowl placed in front of him. "What's your name?" He asked around his slurping. "Sakura Haruno." She said and watched as he happily ate his food. He slammed the bowl down like he did the previous one and pointed a thumb at his chest, "My name's Naruto Uzumaki! And I'm going to be the next Hokage!" Her eyes widened at his name and bold statement.

Uzumaki, she would have to figure out why it sounded so familiar… She smiled at Naruto and raised an eyebrow, "Oh? The next Hokage? Why would you want a silly old job like that?" Naruto's eyes burned at her comment, "It's not silly! It's very important! Once I'm Hokage everyone will like and look up to me!" Sakura's eyes softened, "Really… If it counts any then you have my vote." She ruffled his hair and pushed her half eaten bowl toward him, "Will you finish that for me? I have to leave." Naruto eagerly grabbed the bowl and began to scarf the contents down. Sakura set some money on the counter and nodded to the chef, "The meal was wonderful." He smiled and nodded back to her, "Come back anytime."

Sakura left the stand to once again wander the village. Meaning less chatter surrounded her everywhere. The village was so boring! There wasn't much for her to do because Pein, Yahiko, and Konan already did recon on the village before she became Chunin. The top Nin team was very thorough on their missions. The three combined were almost as good as Zetsu on research missions, almost. She would have to return soon, Yahiko had sent a message out not long ago for them to return with their information and new recruits.

She was proud of the numerous allies she gained on her one year mission. Small villages were eager to have some type of protection and the rising Akatsuki sounded like a fantastic body guard. Expert Nin that would answer the distraught village's pleas, for a price of course. Each village would give Akatsuki a fee for their services, the price depended on how desperate the village was. The villages she made a contract with were scattered all throughout Fire and Wind Country, some large and some nearly non existent.

Each village had an odd characteristic, one was filled with golden flowers that bloomed year around with cheerful wealthy people and another was so dark that its citizens seemed like nothing more than shadows. But that was what made them fun. She never imagined that she would be able to see these places, to befriend the children, and to make political and emotional ties with them. But Konoha confused her. There was no major landmark besides the Hokage Monument and even then it was largely overlooked because of the quiet nature of the village. Why was it such a strong village? Why did people fear it when it came to wars? Why did each Great Village wish to bring it down?

She found her self in front of the Hokage Tower and began to climb the winding stairs to the roof, where she could get a full view of the Hokage Monument. The four male faces chiseled into the mountain caused her curiosity to increase. What was so great about these men? What did they do that made their people want to immortalize them into stone? The first was understandable because he was the founder. The fourth was also another person that she could understand, saving his own village by sacrificing his life to seal away the dreaded Kyuubi. But the others, what good where they? She never once heard of any stories about them, she would have never known that they had lived if they weren't part of the sculpture.

Where they really good men? Or where they like her insane friends? Which one was the reason for the bad blood between Konoha and Suna? Which one first proposed the idea of taming the Bijuu? Were any of them really as great as they were said to have been? She narrowed her eyes, no, they probably weren't at all. No matter how good of a mask a person could wear it all came down to what lied beneath the mask. Everyone had dark secrets, forbidden fantasies, lust filled urges, skeletons better left forgotten. No matter what anyone said, everyone was two faced. She knew that she wasn't an exception. Her dark past was forever embedded on her body and soul, her want for peace was a twisted one.

"_Even a foolish child can grow up in a right way, when he learns what pain is. Knowing pain controls ones thoughts and decisions._"

Pein was right; pain was the source of everything. People acted in response of pain. Revenge, happiness, hate, love. Each was created from pain or the lack of it. What an odd thought, perhaps her friend wasn't as insane as she believed. Or perhaps she was just as twisted as him. Whatever the case she knew that she would never give up on her quest for peace and that neither would he. In time they would see whose chosen path was the victor. With a sigh she turned away from the monument and stopped in her tracks when she saw an elderly man smoking a pipe just behind her.

He stared at her curiously while puffing on the pipe. "Hello there, what brings you up here?" He asked her with a kind smile. She blinked and looked at the third face behind her, son of a-! The third freaking hokage! He nodded at her bewildered expression, "Yes I am the Third Hokage. May I ask who you are?" Sakura bowed slightly, "Sakura Haruno." He "hmm'd" in response. "Where are you from little blossom?" He asked and puffed some more on the pipe. She liked her lips nervously, "Amegakure lord Hokage-sama." He raised an eyebrow, "Such a long way for a blossom to travel. What brings you here?"

She shrugged, "I wanted to see what was so great about Konoha." He blinked slowly and puffed a little more on his pipe, "Many people have asked me that. And it's very simple." He smiled at her, "It's the Will of Fire." He chuckled lightly at her frown, "You may learn what it means in time, until then farewell little blossom." Then he just walked away, puffing his pipe as he descended the stairs and disappeared from her sight.

She stood still on top of the roof utterly confused. **'Um…okay. That was weird…' **Sakura blinked then left the tower and headed back to the inn. Will of Fire? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Could it be a reference to Konoha residing in Fire Country? She sighed, what was with older people telling her confusing things? She looked up and stared at the unfamiliar surroundings. Not many people were walking around and they gave her odd looks when they saw her. She dropped her head with a sigh, great, she was lost.

She continued walking hoping to find a familiar street and after a few hours finally sat down on a nearby bench in defeat. How was it that she always managed to get lost? She looked up at the sky and guessed that it was well past noon. Perfect. Just freaking perfect. Sasori was going to be so mad at her. She dropped her head into her hands and simply sulked there for a little while when a scream reached her ears. Her head snapped up and she grabbed her scythe, more screams sounded only to have an abrupt end. She took off down the street to find the source and soon found her self in front of a large compound, but by then the screams had all but disappeared…

She bit her lip as she stared at the high walls with an odd fan like imprint, the mark of the Uchiha if memory served correct. Hopping onto the wall she stayed low and in the shadows as she was surrounded in an ominous silence. The setting sun only helped in adding to the terrible sight displayed. Gore and still bleeding corpses littered the streets, painting everything crimson. Her teeth clenched in anger and seeing the small bodies of children splayed throughout the area. Who would do such a thing? Venturing farther in she received her answer. A boy, two or three years younger than she, with long raven hair and obsidian eyes was slashing down everyone that came into his line of sight.

Blood splattered across his face and white armor plates, he never once hesitated with the killing blows. Another man, much older than she, was aiding the boy in his arduous task in slaying all of the clansmen. With long spiked raven hair and the same obsidian eyes she knew they were related in some way. They walked inside a large home in the center of the compound, the head's dwelling. She crept to a window in the home and peered inside, the boy killed to adults, most likely a couple, when the door to the room burst open and a the young boy she saw with Naruto the other day stumbled inside.

"Itachi onii-san, who did this?" He asked, voice trembling and eyes swelling with tears, "Who did-!" He was silenced when a shuriken was imbedded into his shoulder. The boy let out a strangled gasp and put a hand to his shoulder, staring at his brother in shock. "Foolish otouto." His eyes flashed red and small black commas spun; the younger boy froze and gasped in terror, then left the room in a run. His brother caught up with him and they engaged in a small skirmish before the elder boy leaned down to the younger's ear, "You're not worth killing otouto, take revenge, let hate consume you, then come find me." Then he hit a pressure point in the boy's neck and the boy feel to the ground unconscious.

The sound of clapping echoed and the man from before was applauding Itachi for the wonderful show, sitting atop the head's porch. "How touching Itachi, going against you specific orders to kill all of your clan to spare your younger brother, how kind. My heart is fluttering at such a kind act." He laid a hand over his heart and batted his eyes as if to prove the point. Itachi merely stared at him and the older man frowned. "No sense of humor I see, as expected from the members of my family." He sighed as he stood, "Well now that that's done we shall take our leave, yes?" Itachi shook his head, "I have one last task to take care of before I leave Madara." The man raised an eyebrow, "Oh? Is that so? Then meet me outside the village gates once you're done with this task. We need to leave for Ame."

Once the man was gone Itachi turned back to his younger brother. He kneeled down next to his and turned him over so he was laying on his back. He poked the boy's forehead with his index finger with a sigh, "I'm sorry otouto…" He laid a kiss on the boy's forehead then left in a flurry of raven feathers.

**o0o**

Sakura stumbled up the steps of the inn and opened her and Sasori's door with a loud bang. Sasori looked up at her with a sigh then took in her flustered appearance. Her chest was heaving, unshed tears made her eyes sparkle, and her face was contorted in a mixture of pain and fury. "What's the matter Sakura?" Sasori asked her setting the puppet part he was working on down. Sakura took a couple deep breaths, "Madara Uchiha. What do you know about him?" Sasori cocked his head to the side confused, "Madara was one of the greatest shinobi to ever live. The first Uchiha to gain the Mangekyo Sharingan and aided in the founding of Konoha."

Sakura's eyebrow furrowed a founding father of Konoha? Then the man she saw was very old… She motioned for him to continue and Sasori complied, "With the Mangekyo Sharingan he was able to take control of the Kyuubi, but he was defeated by his rival and First Hokage Hashirama Senju at the Valley of the End and died." Sakura frowned and then began to pack her belongings. With a sigh Sasori followed suit, "Would you care to explain the sudden questions and why we're leaving?" Sakura grunted as she secured her pack and slipped it onto her back, "I have a feeling that things are going to get hectic and I need to pay a visit to me dear friends back in Ame."

* * *

How's that? Good? Bad? Confusing? Let me know! Leave a review! All thoughts, suggestions, and critique are welcomed! (just not overly harsh stuff like flames because...well they're just plain mean.) Till next we meet Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	19. Chapter 19

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! I deeply apologize for this late ass chapter. There's no real excuse for it besides sheer laziness. I have roughly three weeks of vacation left and I will not waste it now! I will keep updating! This I swear!

**Lungs: **Madara did detect her, but we'll elaborate on that whole situation when it comes. I'm working on the rushing thing! I hope this chapter shows some improvement!

**L.M.D.A.A: **I'm so happy like her! I was worried she would be a little too…depressing? She has a lot of negative emotions…

**mayalice: **Yes Madara is the real leader of Akatsuki. After his epic battle with the first hokage he lives the majority of his life incognito (he's worn seven masks throughout his life).

**Wolfy Saku-chan: **Hidan is coming up! I just wanted to go more in depth with Sasori's parental relationship with Sakura.

**Baka-no-desu-21: **I do plan on Sakura having some type of relationship with Itachi whether it's a romance (like with Kisame and Zetsu) or purely platonic (like with Sasori) is ultimately up to you guys. And I do plan on having her edical jutsu, I just have to figure out how she'll learn it…

**Sariko-chan723: **I apologize for the delay once again…

**Nessa671: **I hope this makes up for the long wait…

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Sasori watched Sakura stoically as she began stuffing her pack with her belongings. Her sudden questions and need to leave the village baffled him. But he was used to her random antics and simply followed her; it was all he would be able to do anyway. Once Sakura set her mind on something there was no turning back. "Come on Sasori! We have to get back to the village!" Sakura all but yelled at him as she finished packing her pack.

Sasori rolled his eyes, "I've been ready Sakura, calm down." She simply growled at him. She slung her pack over her shoulder then froze; she felt around inside the side pocket in her pack and took out a scroll. She hurriedly opened it and pulled out a pen. Sasori stared at her curiously when she began to hastily scribble something on it. Once she closed it the scroll disappeared in a small puff of smoke. Sakura then pointedly ignored his raised eyebrow and left the room.

Sasori followed her and silently gave the inn keeper their room key while Sakura impatiently waited for him at the door. Once outside they made a beeline for the exit. Sasori was silent for the first couple hours of their journey before his curiosity gnawed the last bit of his patience away, "Why are we leaving so suddenly Sakura?" The teen growled and sped up, totally ignoring his question. Narrowing his eyes Sasori flicked his wrist and chakra strings immediately flew out of his finger tips to land on the teen's scythe.

The scythe flew out of his younger companion's hands and the girl let out a startled squeak when her beloved weapon was torn out of her hands. She watched as it fell gently into Sasori's hands and met Sasori's glaring eyes. "Answer me Sakura! Just what has gotten you so mad?" She pursed her lips and frowned at him before letting out a sigh and running a hand through her short pink locks. "There was a mass murder in Konoha." Sasori raised an eyebrow, "And? If you didn't partake in it I really don't see a problem."

Sakura groaned, "The Uchiha Clan was massacred! By their own kin!" Sasori blinked, a little taken aback from her sudden out burst, "But why does it concern us?" He asked softly. Sakura's lip trembled a little, "Because I just watched, I watched as all the small children and babies were killed! Because I think my friends are the reason they were killed!" She clenched her fists and stalked up to him, "And if they are the reason those innocent children were killed then I'll rip them apart, whether or not you're with me."

She snatched her scythe from his hands then jumped into the tree tops to continue the long journey to Ame. Sasori blinked and took a moment to let her words sink in before cursing and running after her. The damn girl was going to end up killing herself if she kept running head first into things without thinking. He caught up with her easily enough; her angry aura kept him a good three feet behind her however. An angry Sakura wasn't pleasant in the slightest, if he kept his distance she would calm down and eventual talk to him again. Maybe. Possibly. Hopefully. Sasori heaved a sigh; it was going to be a long three weeks…

'**Ne, ne Outer! Don't be mad at Sasori! He's just worried about us!' **Sakura scowled, _'Tch, whatever.' _Inner rolled her eyes and flopped down next to the waterfall, **'On another note, how do you think Kisame and Zetsu are going to react to seeing us?' **The thought made Sakura's anger ebb, _'Uhh…happy?' _Inner giggled, **'I can't wait to see them! What kind of people do you think they recruited?'**

Sakura frowned, _'From what I heard Zetsu got a snake, Kisame got a greedy guy, and we have our parental puppet master. Akatsuki sure is filled with weirdos…' _Inner chuckled, **'It certainly is. Oh my Kami! We're going to see Atsuko-san again!' **A small smile graced Sakura's lips, _'Heh, I almost forgot. It should be good to see her again.' _Inner skimmed her fingers over the surface of the water, **'But we still haven't figured out what the damn bracelet does…' **

Sakura shrugged, the bracelet was still a mystery for her. Over the year another charm had appeared, this time a tiny person became a charm. When she had first found it she stared at it curiously and found that it had small indentations in it where all the joints were. After she had stared at it blankly for ten minutes she had finally realized what it was, it was a puppet. Inner had laughed when they first realized this, **'Pfft, wow! This thing is **_**so **_**creative!' **Sakura had rolled her eyes, _'Like you could have thought of something better.' _That comment certainly shut Inner up.

Sakura chuckled out loud at the memory. Ahh, good times. They hit the border of the forest and Sakura jumped down from the treetops. The moon was still high in the sky and Sakura bit her lip debating on whether or not to continue, she glanced at Sasori who was waiting quietly behind her. She readjusted her grip on her scythe then stalked into the temporarily cool desert.

They traveled on through the night with no disturbances, just the occasional desert lizard scampering away from them. When the sun began peeking over the horizon Sakura picked her pace up just a little. _'Damn, damn, damn, the heat's going to come soon.' _ The sun was still relatively low in the sky when the temperature slowly began to climb. With a sigh she pulled a hair tie off her wrist and pulled her hair up in a makeshift ponytail to keep it off of the nape of her neck. She pulled the collar of her cloak up and set her straw hat onto her head.

Then they continued on farther into the soon to be blistering heat of the desert. They were well into the day when she began to feel her face throbbing. Sakura frowned and lightly touched her face, the pain from the bruising was still there but it was now accompanied by another stinging pain. _'What the? Oh fuck! My face is sun burned!' _Sakura whimpered and skimmed her fingers over her face, how her face got burned with her face safe in the shade of her hat was a mystery, but Sakura came to a conclusion.

She would learn to heal herself somehow, someway, because she was getting sick and tired of healing naturally. Though enduring all the small medical experiments Sasori used on her helped with her pain tolerance, she didn't want to continue using mediocre healing techniques. And sooner or later the time would come when Sasori wouldn't be there to help her and his techniques would be worthless. If she wanted to continue going up the ranks as a ninja she would have to learn medical ninjutsu.

She could still remember all those years ago when Jiraya-sensei's other teammate had healed Yahiko after she stabbed him. Her hand glowed a soft green and the wound just disappeared. It was one of the most amazing things that Sakura had ever seen. To be able to heal at will, to be able to help both physical and emotional wounds, how great would that be?

The wind began to pick up an Sasori put a hand on her shoulder, "A sand storm is coming," He pointed to a distant rock formation, "We should hurry and get to cover before it reaches us." She nodded and the two sprinted over to the formation. They were able to find a small cave and once they settled down inside the storm began angrily whipping sand around. Sakura took her hat off with a sigh; they wouldn't be able to leave until the storm passed. "Sleep." Sasori muttered to her. Sakura was more than happy to oblige, she curled up beside him and soon fell asleep.

**o0o**

When she next awoke the sun was low in the sky and the temperature was no longer uncomfortable. She stretched her limbs and sighed contentedly when she felt her back crack. She rolled her neck a couple times before standing and leaving the cave. She and Sasori continued their journey through the desert and soon they came upon Sunagakure. Sakura scowled at the village, "Despicable good for nothing shit hole…" She grumbled as they passed it.

She was happy when they soon left it far behind them. The rest of the week was spent trudging through the sand and finally reaching the far end. Once out they quickly found a stream to get rid of most of the dirt and grime that accumulated on their persons. Her bruise had begun to fade from an obnoxious purple to a putrid mix of green and yellow, accompanied by a tint of pink and red from her sunburn.

Scowling at her image the water reflected Sakura thrust her canteen into the water, effectively dispelling her image, and instead watched small bubbles leave her canteen to burst once they reached the surface of the water. Once full she lifted it out of the water and put the cap back on. Turning away from the water she stared at Sasori who was cooking a couple of fish he had caught for them earlier.

'**You should apologize.' **Sakura scoffed, _'What the hell for?' _Inner rolled her eyes, **'For snapping at him! Let him know you're not mad at him!' **Sakura pursed her lips and glared at the tree line for a couple moments before sighing and walking over to sit across form Sasori. She chewed on the inside of her cheeks before she turned her face to the side and mumbled a sorry. Sasori looked up from the fish to raise an eyebrow at her.

Her eyes briefly glanced at him and she puffed her cheeks out in irritation, "I apologize for snapping at you, I'm just frustrated and didn't mean to let it out on you." Sasori chuckled lightly, "Apology accepted." Then he grabbed the stick of one fish and tossed it to her. She deftly caught it and began to nibble it. The rest of the night was spent in a comfortable silence and then they were on their way early the next morning.

The next couple days were spent with no troubles until it came to an abrupt end when they stumbled upon a blood soaked clearing. Sakura's eyes widened at the sheer amount of red substance coating the forest floor. Deranged cackling brought her and Sasori's attention to a black and white figure slicing up a man with a triple bladed scythe. The man's skin was pitch black with white skeletal markings, his silver hair was slicked back and Sakura could faintly make out a thin silver chain hanging from his neck.

The man beneath him was crying and begging for mercy, the actions only made him cackle louder. "Lord Jashin will enjoy you so fucking much!" Then the man promptly beheaded his hysterical victim. Sakura watched amazed as the man's skin faded from being black and white to a nice tan color. He collapsed to his knees and began muttering something. **'Is he…praying?' **

Sakura's eyebrows shot up and she looked to Sasori who was blankly staring at the now praying shirtless man. Something about the praying man created a faint spark in Sakura's mind, but she couldn't fully grasp it. She frowned and turned back to the man; he had finished his praying and stood. He smiled widely and turned to face them, "Did you enjoy the fucking show?"

The sun reflected off of his necklace and Sakura's eyes zeroed in on it. It was an triangle inscribed within a circle. The spark in her mind brightened. Lost soul. Consumed in his religion. Three bladed scythe. Curses a lot. Shirtless. Unique necklace. Hidan. This man was Atsuko-san's long time friend, the man Atsuko-san wanted Sakura to befriend. Slowly a smile crept onto Sakura's face, "I've been looking for you Hidan!" She said.

Hidan's brow furrowed, "How the fuck do you know me bitch?" He spat. She chuckled lightly, "Atsuko-san has told me about you." Hidan's frown disappeared and a smile adorned his face, "So that bitch is still around?" Sakura nodded. He leaned against his scythe, "Fuck, it's been about twenty years since I last saw her." Then he frowned, "Why the fuck did she tell you about me?"

Sakura ignored his glare, "She said that maybe you'd like to do more than just sacrifice people to your God." He raised an eyebrow, "She did, eh? Well what the fuck did you have in mind?" Sakura tapped her chin in thought, "Well, I'm a member of Akatsuki, maybe you'd like to join the ranks?" Hidan snorted, "You're in that dumbass group? That new criminal organization?" Sakura narrowed her eyes as he laughed at her, "What's so funny?" Hidan clutched his stomach as he tried to contain his laughter, "You're a fucking midget! A pink haired fucking midget!"

He guffawed and Sakura clenched her fists, **'The bastard's laughing at us! Let me at 'em! I'll rip his fucking face off!' **Grabbing her scythe off her back Sakura spun it a little then smashed its pole onto the ground. Sasori sighed and walked over to a nearby rock to wait out the battle Sakura was sure to have with Hidan, he muttered a 'hurry up' before he sat on the rock. Hidan's laughter ceased and an amused smirk adorned his face, "You wanna fight little bitch? Bring it on! I'm sure Lord Jashin wouldn't mind another sacrifice!"

Brandishing his own scythe the two settled into their preferred fighting stance before launching at each other. Sparks flew when the metal of their scythes ground against each other. Hidan's foot shot up and delivered a swift kick to her stomach, Sakura gasped and was thrust a couple feet away from Hidan. Clenching her scythe she sprang forward and swung it diagonally, the way Hidan positioned his scythe made the blade of her's fall between the blades of his. Once Sakura saw this she twisted her scythe to try and wrench the scythe out of his hands.

But the scythe remained firmly in his grasp and with a growl Sakura dislodged her scythe from his and hopped a couple feet away. _'I can't win if I use my scythe; he's more adept with his. I have my claws, fans, and twin katana, which would be best in a fight with him?' _She studied his relaxed stance, they were both more close range fighters, maybe some clones would suffice? She brought her hands together and quickly summoned three shadow clones. "Hey boss!" The clones chirped.

Sakura nodded to them and her clones settled into their positions, then the four leaped at Hidan. The clone with claws grappled with the blades of Hidan's scythe and with the help of a weaponless clone they were able to toss it across the clearing. Hidan growled and grabbed the weaponless and threw it into the clawed clone. The weaponless clone was impaled with the claws and the momentum from the throw caused the two to topple to the floor, effectively dispelling them.

Hidan reached into a side pocket and took out a small black handle. He flicked his wrist and the handle extended into the length of his arm. Sakura narrowed her eyes at his smirk, **'We better not let that thing touch us!' **She rolled her eyes, like she was going to let the psycho actually hurt her. She had heard of his religion and its extremity, there was no way she was going to be sacrificed to some demented God.

He lashed out with it and Sakura danced just out of reach of the sharp point. Her clone stood in front of her defensively; bringing its twin katana up to block any attempts Hidan might have at trying to harm Sakura. Glancing at her clone Sakura tossed her scythe to the side and unsheathed her own twin katana. She shared a look with her clone and they ran forward, weaving together in quick steps.

Confused Hidan thrust his weapon at one of them, caught off guard Sakura halted and tried to spin out of the way but to no avail, the spear sliced into the flesh of her arm. Hidan chuckled and licked the blood off the blade. His deranged laughing once again filled the air, "Now you'll feel my curse!" He drew a circle around him and inscribed a triangle within it, standing in the center his appearance changed into his grim reaper like state.

He smiled manically and stabbed his left thigh, immediately Sakura cried out and grasped her own bleeding thigh. **'He, he's a fucking voodoo doll!' **Inner yelped in horror. Sakura looked up to see Hidan retract the spear then thrust it into his stomach, all the while laughing. Blood seeped from her stomach and Sakura gasped, pressing her hand to the wound to try and halt the bleeding.

She cried out when he began moving the spear around, she could feel each and every tear he made to both his and her insides. Blood began to dribble out of her mouth and she coughed, splattering blood on the floor. Hidan slowly took the spear out and Sakura collapsed to her knees. "Now! Let's savor the utmost suffering together!" He cried joyously. Sakura glanced up at him and froze; he had the spear pointed at his chest, at his heart.

'**Oh my Kami-sama…' **The spear swiftly pierced Hidan's flesh and impaled his heart. Sakura's eyes widened at the pain and more blood seeped from her mouth. Then she slowly slumped to the floor. Hidan cackled and his natural skin color began to reappear. He retracted his spear and grinned down at Sakura's body. "Tough luck little bitch." He froze when he heard girlish giggling behind him and felt the cool touch of a blade at his neck, "I don't think so!" A sing song voice said.

"What the fuck!" Hidan yelped. Sakura giggled, "To bad you killed my clone and not me…" Then the dead 'Sakura' disappeared in a puff of smoke. Hidan growled in irritation, "Damnit! I'll kill you little bitch!" Sakura smiled, "Better luck next time!" Then she decapitated him. She flicked her wrist to rid her blade of blood and re-sheathed her katana as Hidan's body fell.

Bending down she grabbed Hidan's head and turned it so she could see his scowling face. "Now, don't make that face! You we're asking for it!" He growled, "You little bitch!" Sakura squished his cheeks together to stop him from cursing at her any more. "Ne! Sasori! Can you help me with his body?" Sasori sighed and looked up from the puppet leg he was inspecting.

Walking toward her he raised an eyebrow at the head in her hands, "You want to keep a dead body?" He didn't know she was into that kind of stuff… Hidan glared at him, "I ain't dead dumbass!" Sasori blinked and Sakura giggled, "He's immortal! Atsuko-san told me all about him! I figured that if I decapitated him he would be as harmless as a baby, and he is!" More growling erupted from the head, "Just wait until I get my body back! I'm going to mmmph rmmph!"

Sakura cradled his head in the crook of her left arm and put her right hand over him mouth. "He sure does talk a lot doesn't he Sasori?" Sasori grunted and lightly kicked Hidan's body, a muffled yelp erupted from Hidan and Sakura removed her hand from his mouth. "What the fuck! I can still feel that bastard!" Sasori grunted again and picked up his body.

"Ne, ne Hidan-chan! Can you still eat even if you're not connected to your body?" Hidan glared at her, "Fuck no! And what the hell? Chan? I'm not your mmmph rmmmph mmph!" Sakura frowned as she put her hand back over his mouth, "It was just a question geez…" She mumbled. She released his mouth to grab his scythe then walked over to her own. She set his head onto the floor and reached into her pack and retrieved a scroll.

She unrolled the scroll and set both scythes on top of it, after a few hand signs both scythes were safely sealed away. "Hey!" Hidan said as she put the scroll away and she turned to him, "Get my fucking amulet!" Sakura blinked and looked out into the clearing, the sun was reflecting off of his amulet where it fell off his body when he had fallen. Sakura trotted over to it and picked it up. She rolled it over in her hands as she walked back to Hidan's head.

She slipped it and found that it hung between her breasts. Then she grabbed Hidan's head once again and turned to Sasori with a smile, "Alrighty! Let's continue!"

* * *

How was it? Please tell me your thoughts! And maybe I can get some suggestions on how you guys want her relationship with Hidan to be? Romantical or platonic? The same with Itachi and Kakuzu! Because ultimately who she gets with (if she even ends up with anyone) is entirely up to you guys! Till next we meet! Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	20. Chapter 20

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello lovelies! Here is another chapter! Oh my gosh! Twenty Chapters! This story is definitely going to be longer than my first story. I also want to apologize for the shortness of this chapter. I promise to make it up next chapter!

**kusukusu225: **A brother/sister relationship? Yes, that just may work.

**violentblossom: **I'm glad to hear that! I love Hidan too! I think it sucks how he was defeated, blown up and buried, that sucks ass.

**Hope n' Faith: **I'll see what I can do about her meeting Neji.

**BlueMoon-Tenshi: **I sure will keep writing!

**Black snake eyes: **Thank you, thank you so much!

**L.M.D.A.A: **Sakura is still pissed about the whole thing that happened in Konoha. But she's reigning in her anger after blowing up at Sasori. She doesn't want to let her anger out on people that don't deserve it.

**Last to Cross: **I'm thinking of actually making it a brother/sister relationship, it might even be a one-sided love on Hidan's part. Thank Bejeezus! I've been working hard on slowing it down and I'm glad it showed! I think I'm going to keep Sakura and Sasori's relationship platonic unless more people want Sasori to be Sakura's main man.

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

After a week and a half of traveling with Hidan still decapitated Sakura realized that Hidan really did curse a lot. He couldn't say one sentence without throwing in a couple profanities. While Sakura found it hilarious she knew that it was grating on Sasori's nerves. He would stay out longer hunting for a meal just so that he could escape Hidan's potty mouth.

He was out for a particularly long while and when he came back to their campsite he found Sakura and Hidan having a staring contest. He rolled his eyes at the weird expressions they wore, trying to get the over to blink. They still had a couple day's worth of travel before they reached Ame. Sakura's anger had ebbed a little the past couple weeks but Sasori knew she was still seething. He wondered how her reunion with the other members would be. With a sigh he set to work on cooking the fish.

Hidan's eyes were beginning to twitch and Sakura smiled, **'Blink! Blink! Blink! Blink! Blink!'** Inner chanted, fists clenched and jumping with every word. Sakura widened her eyes a little more and leaned forward a little. Hidan fought to keep his eyes open but with a curse he blinked and Sakura jumped from her seat with a cry of victory, throwing her hands in the air.

Hidan rapidly blinked his eyes, "Rematch damnit! I demand a mother fucking rematch!" Sakura shook her head, "Nu uh! I won fair in square!" Hidan pouted and looked away from her grumbling to him self. Sakura giggled and picked his head up and walked so they were closer to the fire and sat down cross-legged and set Hidan's head in her lap. Hidan's body was next to her and Hidan stared at it longingly, "When am I going to get my damn body back? I can feel it getting fucking stiff!"

Sakura pet his head, "I dunno, maybe Atsuko-san will be able to reattach you to your body." Hidan growled at her, "Stop fucking petting me!" Sakura giggled, "But why? It's so fun!" Hidan scowled at her and with a sigh Sakura stopped. "Ne Sasori?" Sasori grunted, "Do you think we'll stay partners once we get to Akatsuki?" Sasori paused for a moment then reached forward and turned the skinned rabbit over. "It is a possibility."

Sakura frowned and stroked the side of Hidan's face. Hidan blinked up at her, opting to stay silent once he saw the glazed look in her eyes. _'Who do you think they would pair us with?' _Inner shrugged, **'I'm guessing that Pein would pair everyone up based on their abilities, and since we don't know the other recruits we may just be paired with them. But we also might just be paired with the people we already know too.' **

Sakura's perked up a little at the possibility of staying with one of her friends. But then her face tightened in anger when she realized that she might also be paired up with the Uchiha. **'Hey now, calm down. We still have a couple days before we see them. Let's make the most of it with these guys.'** Sakura took a few deep breaths to calm her self; maybe having a second self wasn't so bad. If anything, having a second self helped her think things more clearly.

"Hey, you okay little bitch?" Sakura blinked and smiled down at Hidan as her eyes refocused. "I'm fine, just thinking about stuff…" There was a faint pop and Sakura squealed. Setting Hidan down she grabbed her pack and began rummaging through it. Sasori and Hidan stared when she brought out a scroll. **'It's from Kisame!' **Sakura squealed again and quickly opened the scroll.

_Hey Pink,_

_I hope your journey was better than mine. The guy I found is one greedy fucker. I found him when he was going bounty hunting and after some convincing (and promising that he could take care of Akatsuki's money) he agreed to join. Zetsu's already back with this snake looking guy named Orochimaru. I don't trust this guy one bit, especially after he was staring at the new little teen we just got. You better hurry and get her Pink, Pein and Yahiko are getting impatient. _

_Kisame_

Sakura hummed to herself as she read over the short note from Kisame. Well if those two were getting pissy, was it really right for her to keep them waiting? She rolled the scroll up and tossed it back into her bag, the two carrot tops could wait for her a little longer. It was their fault for sending her to the farthest land. Sakura glanced at her two companions that were staring at her with cocked eyebrows.

Sakura blinked innocently at them, "What?" Sasori just shook his head at her while Hidan decided to voice his question, "What the fuck was that?" Sakura frowned for a moment before she laughed, "Oh you mean the scroll? I've had that for a year now. It let's me talk to my friends." Hidan blinked, "That's fucking awesome." Sakura giggled some more and accepted the cooked rabbit Sasori handed to her.

Hidan scowled at them as they ate, "We better hurry the fuck up and put me back onto my body…" He let his sentence trail off and started mumbling to him self. Sakura laughed, "Don't worry, that'll be the first thing we do when we get back m'kay?" Hidan rolled his eyes, "Whatever." Sakura gulped down the last bit of her rabbit and rolled out her sleeping bag. She grabbed Hidan and went inside of it, "Come on, we're going to bed. Night Sasori!" She said cradling Hidan in her arms and closing her eyes. Hidan mumbled a couple of curses before sighing and shutting his own eyes to sleep.

**o0o**

Two days later and they finally had Ame in sight. Sakura bit her lip and sped up a little. She could already tell that a lot had changed to her village in the time she was gone. She shook her head at the new architecture her village had. There were statues everywhere of both Pein and Yahiko. There wasn't a street without at least a statue of one of them.

Sakura led Sasori throughout the village, pointing out a couple of buildings before they stood outside the library. Holding Hidan's head tightly Sakura ran inside the building. "ATSUKO-SAN!" She called as she ran to the front desk. The black haired looked up, "Sakura-chan? Is that you?" She leapt from her seat and brought Sakura into a hug. "Atsuko-san! Look who I brought to visit you!"

Atsuko pulled away from Sakura and laughed heartily at the head cradled in Sakura's arms. "Hidan is that you? What happened?" Hidan scowled at her, "Little bitch over here cut my fucking head off!" Atsuko's face turned red and she let out a loud bellow of laughter. Tears sprang to her eyes and she clutched her stomach as her laughter over took her. Hidan growled, "Shut the fuck up!" Atsuko tried to calm her self but then Sasori walked in with Hidan's body slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and she guffawed.

Hidan glared up at the hysterically laughing woman, "Fuck! Just get me back onto my damn body already!" Atsuko took heaving breaths as she wiped the tears from her eyes, giggles escaping her every now and then. She gestured to Sasori, "You can put his body over here on my desk." Walking to the desk Sasori unceremoniously dropped Hidan's body onto the desk harshly. Hidan hissed in pain, "Fuck man! Be a little more gentle!" Sasori rolled his eyes, "Suck it up." Hidan scowled at him.

Atsuko took Hidan's head from Sakura and placed it back onto its proper place. Atsuko's hands were enveloped in green and Sakura gasped, Atsuko was a medic! **'Oh my Kami-sama! Maybe Atsuko-san can heal our face!' **Sakura snorted, _'Fuck that! She's going to teach us how to heal it ourselves!' _Inner nodded, **'Yeah, that might be better…'** Sakura smiled at stepped closer to Atsuko and Hidan. Hidan's body shuddered and the glow from Atsuko's hands disappeared.

Hidan sat up and rolled his neck with a content sigh, "That's fucking better." His stomach growled and he placed one hand over it, "You got any food Atsuko? I haven't eaten for two fucking weeks." Atsuko nodded and reached under her desk and took out a bento box and handed it to him. He drooled, "Fuck yeah!" He opened the box and began eating groaning in satisfaction. .

Atsuko rolled her eyes at him and turned to Sasori, "Hello there, you're a new face. The name's Atsuko if you didn't already catch it." She held out her hand to Sasori. The red head nodded to her and grabbed her hand, "Akasuna no Sasori." Atsuko's eyebrows lifted at his name, "The famed puppet master? What brings you here? I would have thought that you'd stay away from water."

Sasori stiffened and he flickered his eyes over to Sakura who was trying to steal some food from Hidan. Atsuko frowned, "She doesn't know?" He returned his gaze back to Atsuko, "No one does, so how do you?" She smiled, "When you live as long as I have, you find out a lot of things about people in the oddest of ways." He narrowed his eyes at her and she waved him off, "Calm down, I won't tell her. But you do know she'll find out one day, be sure to tell her yourself before someone else does it for you."

She turned away from him to see Sakura finally getting Hidan to have a bite of food. She opened her mouth as Hidan placed the small morsel into her mouth and she munched happily on it. "Sakura what happened to your face?" Sakura stopped mid chew and swallowed her food, "I broke my nose." Atsuko skimmed her hand over Sakura's face, "How?" Sakura looked away from Atsuko, her face turning red when she thought about how she broke her nose.

Seeing Sakura's hesitance Atsuko decided not to pursue it further and instead began to heal Sakura's bruised face. In a matter of moments Sakura's face was back to its normal pale hue. Sakura poked her cheeks and smiled when she didn't feel any pain, "Thanks Atsuko-san!" She chirped. Atsuko smiled and patted Sakura's head, "No problem, so what brings you back to my lovely abode? I thought you were on that long mission for Yahiko." Sakura scowled, "Yahiko sent out a message for all members to return and bring our recruits. I brought these two with me."

Sakura jerked her thumb at the boys and Atsuko nodded, "Yes I see. Have you gotten any farther with figuring out what the bracelet is for?" Sakura held up her wrist and shook her head, "No but these charms keep popping up on it." Sakura blinked and her eyes widened, "Hey look! There's a new charm!" And sure enough there was a tiny little skeleton right next to the little love charm. Sakura fingered it and looked at Hidan who raised an eyebrow at her, "What?" Sakura looked back at the charm trying to figure out why it was a skeleton.

Inner snapped her fingers, **'I got it! It's because when he fights he gets that grim reaper garb when he does all that crazy voodoo shit!'** Sakura opened her mouth into a tiny 'o' and nodded, yes that made sense. "What's wrong Sakura?" Atsuko asked and tapped Sakura's temple, "What'd she say?" Sakura shook her head and refocused on Atsuko, "She just told me who the charm stood for."

Hidan slid down from his seat on the desk, "Wait one fucking minute! Don't tell me little bitch is like you!" He said waving his arms. Atsuko put her hands on her hips, "And what's that supposed to mean?" Hidan put his hands up in defense, "Whoa! Whoa! Calm the fuck down! I'm just asking 'cause it would explain why she always zones out!" Sasori frowned, "What are you talking about?" Sakura grinned sheepishly at him, "Oh well, I kind of have a second self. She lives in my mind." Atsuko patted Sakura's head, "Yes and I too have a second self, and so does another member of Akatsuki."

Sasori shook his head; he always knew there was something wrong with Sakura. "Ne, Atsuko-san! Can you train me in medical ninjutsu?" Atsuko blinked and looked down at Sakura; she smiled, "Of course! But shouldn't you be getting to your Akatsuki meeting now?" Sakura scowled, "Ugh, come on you guys. Let's go get this damn thing over with. I'll see you later Atsuko-san!" Sakura said as she left the building with the boys following her. "See you Sakura-chan!"

* * *

Please leave a review and tell me what you think! Till next we meet! Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	21. Chapter 21

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Le sigh, school has begun… The freshmen in my math class make me feel retarded XP.

**Yuki-Hime 2097: **SakuxSaso? I'll think about it. I'll put a pole up for it too. And we'll see what happens with Sakura in Akatsuki.

**L.M.D.A.A: **Thank you! And I most certainly will continue!

**Black snake eyes: **Thank you! I apologize for the late update

**Hope n' Faith:** Phew! I'm so happy that the story is a unique one. I've been scared that I might adapt what I've read in other stories into mine, and I so do not want to do that.

**AnimaniacXOX:** You may not agree with my use of an OC in this aspect but I have to say I'm not going to change it. Sure Tsunade is better; she is the top medical nin in the original Naruto storyline. But this story is nothing like the original Naruto, there are still some similarities but for the most part this is my creation. Sakura isn't the same character as the show, so she's not going to have Tsunade teach her. She's not going to be the good medical nin, she's going to be a killing machine.

**Nessa671: **I deeply apologize for the uber late update!

**Last to Cross: **Yes! Thank God I'm improving! Orochimaru really is going to creep her out, this'll be her first formal meeting with him and all of her instincts will be bugging out.

**Crazycherry495: **Sakura's man is up for debate. She can have one, multiple or none at all. It all depends on who you, my readers, want her to be with.

**: **Lol I loved your little rant. Once again I apologize for the late update!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Sakura scowled up at the mansion. It seemed to have grown a couple floors in the past year. "Are we fucking going in or not?" Hidan asked impatiently. He grumbled when Sasori elbowed him in the ribs. Sakura took a deep breath then pushed through the gates, Sasori and Hidan following behind her. Hidan whistled at the interior of the mansion, "Damn, this shit's nice." Sakura narrowed her eyes; it was still very much the same since last she was here. Same marble interior, same giant crystal chandelier, same pompous aura. It made her stomach churn.

With a sigh Sakura navigated through the seemingly endless halls until she stopped at two large wooden doors. She steeled her nerves and wiped her face of all emotions. Sakura pushed open one door and did a quick sweep of the room. Kisame and Zetsu sat up straighter when they saw her, the masked man beside Kisame rose an eyebrow at her, Orochimaru smiled a creepy smile, the Uchiha remained neutral, Pein merely glanced at her before turning back to Yahiko who rose his hands in greeting and had a small smile, "Welcome back Sakura."

Sakura moved to one of the empty chairs at the long table, "Nice to see you again Yahiko, Pein." She settled down in the chair and blinked when she noticed the various piercings adorning Pein's face. Hidan and Sasori sat down on either side of her as she studied Pein's face. He had a pair of snake bites, six piercings along his nose, six along either ear with a vertical bar, and she could see about four piercings along his collar bone peeking out of his shirt. A quick calculation led her to believe that he had approximately twenty-five piercings. And those were the only ones she could see, who knew how many more he had hidden?

"Now that the last of our members are here, let's begin." Yahiko said as he leaned back into his chair. He had everyone's rapt attention. He let his gaze wander around the room, taking in each new face, "As you all know I am the leader of Akatsuki. And this is the current leader of Amegakure and my partner in this organization Pein," he said waving his hand at Pein, "We, along with Sakura, are the creators of this organization. Our goal is a world without war. Do any of you know how we'll acquire this?" Sakura grit her teeth together and fought to keep all emotion from her face, she looked across from herself and caught Kisame and Zetsu's eyes. Kisame frowned and Zetsu's eyes narrowed. The three still had not come to terms with Yahiko's deranged idea, and all doubted that they ever would.

"We will be capturing the Bijuu." Yahiko announced a somewhat deranged smile across his lips. His idea was met with stunned silence. "Each of you will be paired off and assigned a jinchuuriki to capture. We will talk of how this will happen at a later date. For now Pein and I will evaluate our newest recruits and decide how the pairing will be. Our current members may leave. I'll call you when we have decided." He said and gave Sakura, Zetsu, and Kisame a dismissive wave. Without a word the three stood and left the room.

Once safely outside the mansion Sakura turned to face her friends and threw her arms around them. Kisame chuckled, "Nice to see you again too pink." A faint smile adorned Zetsu's features and he lightly stroked Sakura's hair, "Hello Sakura." Sakura smiled up at the two, "I missed you guys so much!" She said and took a step away from them. Zetsu fingered her hair with a light frown, **"You cut your hair."** His dark side grumbled. Sakura ran her hand through her short locks and gave them a sheepish smile, "Yeah, it was getting in the way so I cut it. At least I had Sasori cut it for me; otherwise it would be a butchered mess right now."

Kisame laughed aloud, "I would have loved to see that." Sakura stuck her tongue out at him, "Shut up you stupid shark!" He gasped and splayed a hand over his throat, "Why pink! You wound me!" Sakura rolled her eyes and lightly punched him, "Shut up you dork." Kisame just chuckled. They lapsed into a comfortable silence as they wandered around the village. Soon, however, their wandering brought them outside the village and to their valley. Sakura slowed when the waterfall came into view, "Did they change it? Like how they did to the village?" She asked Kisame after a moment of silence.

Kisame shook his head, "No, I made sure they stayed away. But I did make some renovations." Sakura cocked her head in confusion, "What kind of…renovations?" Kisame smiled and grabbed her hand, "Come on and I'll show you." She let Kisame pull her to the waterfall, not noticing Zetsu's scowl at her and Kisame's joined hands. Sakura gasped once they entered the cave. It didn't even remotely resemble a cave anymore. It was her home. "Kisame…" She whispered his name as she ran her hands over the furniture in the living room. She turned to see him smiling at her, "You like it? I know how upset you were about the original exploding. It's a wonder what multiple justsu and some planks of wood could do."

Tears sprang to Sakura's eyes as she walked forward to hug him, "Thank you so much…" She mumbled against his stomach. Kisame wrapped his arms around her, "Anything for you Sakura." He looked up to flash a triumphant smirk at Zetsu. Zetsu glared at him, lips pursed and a murderous aura pulsing around him. Sakura pulled away from Kisame and ventured around the home. Walking past the kitchen she opened some shoji doors and laughed, "The garden too!"

Her laughter was muffled as she shut the shoji doors behind her to roam around the garden. Zetsu spun on Kisame, eyes blazing, "**You!**" His dark side growled out, his lighter side silently simmering. Kisame smirked, "Me?" Zetsu clenched his fists, to mad to vocalize anything else. Kisame's smirk widened and he began walking towards the garden, "Shark one, plant zero." He laughed as he shut the doors behind him.

"**That ass! I can't believe he pulled something like this!**" Zetsu's lighter side sighed, "He has indeed won this round, but we can still win." His dark side raised an eyebrow, "**Oh? How so?**" A small smile stretched across Zetsu's face, the battle for Sakura's affection had begun.

* * *

I'm in physical pain, this damn thing is so short. I do apologize, honestly I do. Next chapter will be longer I promise. Please leave a review with your thoughts and suggestions! They are very much appreciated!

-Linda Chicana


	22. Chapter 22

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Some freaky shit has happend her in S.D! A supposed terrorist attack scared the shit out of my parents on Thursday. Everyone's anxious about 9/11, they all think that another attack is going to happen. It's so nerve wracking! On another note, WOOOO! 111 reviews! Thank you all so much! I love you all!

**Black snake eyes: **Thank You!

**Hope n' Faith:** I'll try and get her back to Konoha soon!

******People Call Me Crazy And I Agree**: Will do!

**Lungs: **We'll see how the ultimate confrontation between Sakura, Pein, and Yahiko happens.

**Sharky97: **You're just one of many that keep telling me to do that. And I just have this to say: PATIENCE! Everything will fall into place soon my readers! Asses will be kicked and insane people will turn somewhat sane! …Or die, but you didn't hear that from me!

**save a plant eat a vegetarian: **Thank you! I'm sorry for the wait!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Sakura stepped inside the master bedroom, eyes lightening up at the familiar room. The only thing Kisame had failed to replicate was the bloodstains. Though she had truly cherished the bloodstains in her original home, she was glad that they were no longer around. She didn't need them anymore; she didn't need them as a landline anymore, as something constant in her ever changing life.

Walking forward she fell face first on the bed pressed up against the far wall in her room. It was soft and squishy. **'Aah….like a cloud!'** Inner purred. Sakura nuzzled into the plush sheets and snuggled one of the large body pillows. Kisame sure knew how to pamper her. She sighed happily and opened her eyes a crack when she heard the door open. The light taping of feet reached her ears then the bed dipped under her visitor's weight. "I'm glad you're back Sakura." Sakura's eyes opened fully and she turned to smile at Zetsu.

"As am I Zetsu." She said. A brief smile flitted across Zetsu's face, "Would you like to talk about your trip?" She thought about it for a moment then replied, "It would probably be best if I told you and Kisame together, especially when I know we won't be interrupted now." Zetsu nodded, "Yes, we should take advantage of the time we have now, I'll fetch Kisame." Then Zetsu stood and left the room. Sakura took a deep breath then sat up, **'We telling them everything?' **Sakura ran her hand through her hair as she waited for her friends' return, _'Of course I am. I trust those two with my life, and they haven't betrayed me in any way so far, and I doubt they ever will. Just as I will never betray them.' _Inner hummed in response.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, _'Don't even start Inner. Just because Pein and Yahiko aren't the best of friends does __not_ _mean that Kisame and Zetsu will be like them. Nor will Sasori and Hidan, so you just get that straight!' _Inner pursed her lips and glared at nothing in particular before she smiled, **'I'm glad to see you're finally sticking to your kunai.' **Sakura wasn't sure what Inner meant by that and was going to question her about it but her friends entered her room. Kisame and Zetsu sat on either side of her, "So," Kisame said after a moment of silence, "Who's going first?"

Kisame and Sakura turned to Zetsu who sighed, "Fine, we'll go. There wasn't much to do in Grass Country, we made some alliances with the small villages throughout it. Not much in regards to scenery, at least to us. It was all the same since last we were there. However, we did find a snake hidden in the grass. **That snake is fucking creepy. We found him in a hole in the ground, literally. He had this insane laboratory made into the ground. From to look of it, he had just barely finished making it. Once he saw our cloak he jumped at the chance to be recruited. We doubted that we would find anyone else so willing to become a part of Akatsuki so we kept him with us. He's an odd one, more so then any of us.** We'll have to keep a watchful eye on him, I suspect that if given the chance Orochimaru wouldn't hesitate to betray us."

Zetsu turned his attention to Kisame and gave him a pointed look. "Nothing much happened on my end either. In between making the alliances I came back here to work on the house. I met Kakuzu six months into the mission. The old man was bounty hunting and after a lot of convincing he finally decided to join up with Akatsuki. He's an irritably man, but if we can get him on our side I doubt he would betray us…. As long as he isn't offered a lot of money…"

Both men turned to the petite pinkette between them. Sakura blinked up at them and after a moment she realized why they were staring at her, "Oh! Well, before the mission, I guess I should tell you, I talked to my friend Atsuko-san. She's the one that gave me the scrolls. She also has a second spirit," Zetsu's eyes widened and Sakura patted his thigh, "I know I was shocked when I found out too. Anyway she, well she has the ability to manipulate two elements and, for some reason, I was able to learn from the scrolls she made when she was first learning how to control her elements."

"And she gave me this," Sakura lifted her right arm to show them her charm bracelet, "Atsuko-san said that it has a special power, but I've yet to figure out just what it does, but these charms do pop up every now and then. Inner thinks that the charms each represent a person. The cherry blossom me, the sword Kisame, the black and white flower Zetsu, the kanji for love little Gaara-kun, the puppet Sasori, and the skeleton Hidan."

Sakura lightly tapped the love charm, eyes glazing over, "The first village I went to was Sunagakure, and there I met the cutest little boy. He wasn't very well liked by his village and the children were cruel to him. He gave me a tour of his village. I came to love him…" Zetsu and Kisame looked up at each other eyes wide, "I had to leave him for a short while so that I could delve into Suna's hidden libraries, and then it happened. His uncle tried to murder him. I wanted to take him with me, raise him as my own but he refused. He gave me his stuffed bear instead, I told him I would come back for him and I will."

Sakura took a deep breath, "Then I met Sasori, he's a puppet master. We traveled the rest of the year together, making alliances with every village we came in contact with. We briefly stayed in Konohagakure where…where the Uchihas were all massacred. And that one, Itachi, did it." She spat, "All of them, even the babies, were killed except his brother. He had help, but I don't know who it was that helped him, they're related though. After that Sasori and I hurried to return, and we stumbled across Hidan. After decapitating him he was force to travel with us, he curses a lot for a holy man, but I like him. And that was my mission."

Sakura looked up at her friends with a small smile. The two men stared blankly down at her for a moment, "So you, ah, you fell in love?" Kisame asked. Sakura's smile widened, "Sort of, Gaara-kun's only five." Her friends let out a sigh of relief and Sakura's eyes widened and she punched their shoulders. The two let out a yelp and grabbed their injured shoulders, "I can't believe you guys thought I was in talking about that kind of love!" She huffed and fell back onto her bed with her arms crossed.

Kisame leaned back, "Oh come on pink, it was an honest mistake! Don't be mad!" Zetsu lay down beside Sakura and pouted. Sakura glared at him and turned away only to see a pouting Kisame. She narrowed her eyes at him and turned to stare at the ceiling. Her eye twitched when Kisame poked her side, and she shut her eyes when Zetsu joined in. After a couple minutes she finally caved, "Fine! You guys are forgiven!" Kisame and Zetsu discreetly high fived, "Well night pink, we'll see you tomorrow."

Sakura grabbed their shirts before they could leave, "Wait! Don't…don't leave me." The two blinked then lay back down beside Sakura, "Sure pink, we'll stay with you." Zetsu brushed her bangs aside, "We'll never leave you Sakura." Sakura smiled at them then crawled under the sheets and patting the empty spots beside her, the two quickly filled them. "Night Kisame, Zetsu." Sakura said and shut her eyes, "Night pink." Kisame said settling in his spot against the wall. "Goodnight Sakura." Zetsu said.

**o0o**

A week passed and finally Sasori and Hidan were released from the mansion, "Damn, that took forever!" Hidan groaned. Sasori rolled his eyes, why must Hidan be so childish? Hidan crossed his arms behind his head and looked around, "Hey, where the fuck are we supposed to go?" Sasori stopped as he contemplated this, where were they supposed to go? "Sasoriiiii!" Sasori's eyes widened when something pink collided with him and took a couple steps back to regain his balance, "Sakura?" Sakura smiled up at him, "Hey hey Sasori!" Then she turned to pounce on Hidan who was unfortunately unprepared for an energetic ball of pink to suddenly launch itself on him and fell with an 'oof.'

"How are you Hidan? Did you guys make Akatsuki? Who's being partnered?" Hidan groaned at Sakura. "Hey calm down pink, let 'em breath." Sasori looked up at the tall, muscular blue man. "I'm sure we'll find who is partnered with who soon Sakura." Sasori moved his attention to the two toned man beside the blue man. Sakura just attracted weird people didn't she? Sakura sighed, "Fine." She moved off of Hidan and offered him her hand. Hidan glared up at her, "Little bitch that hurt!"

Sakura rolled her eyes, "Stop being a baby." Hidan grabbed her hand and Sakura pulled him up, "I'm not a fucking baby." Sakura giggled, "Whatever, so did you guys make it?" Hidan scoffed, "'Course we did little bitch." Sakura squealed and hugged him, "Yay! I'm so happy you guys made it!" Hidan's eyes softened a little and he patted her head, "Yeah…" Sakura turned to leap at Sasori, "I knew you two would make it!"

Sasori sighed, "Yes we made it." Sakura stepped away from Sasori and smiled brightly at both Sasori and Hidan, "I want you two to meet my dear friends Kisame and Zetsu! Kisame, Zetsu these are my recruits Sasori and Hidan!" The four men sized each other up. Hidan rose an eye brow and Sakura's friends, "Fuck little bitch, you sure do know how to pick 'em." Kisame's eyes narrowed, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Hidan shrugged, "Nothing, just that she sure does attract a bunch of freaks." Zetsu's eyes flashed at the derogatory remark. "**Excuse me?**" Hidan nodded, "Yeah, just look at us. A shark, a plant, a puppet, and a skeleton, we're a fucking freaky bunch." The group was silent for a moment before Kisame laughed. Zetsu sighed, Sasori rose and eyebrow and Hidan smirked.

Sakura smiled at her friends, happy to see them getting along well. **'You know, we actually do make good friends.'** Inner said as she watched the men interact, _'Yeah, we really do don't we Inner?' _A small smile flitted across Inner's lips, **'Too bad this won't last. Soon our temporary peace will be broken. Once we're paired off the hunt for the Bijuu begins. What if we aren't assigned to Gaara? And what about that cheeky little brat Naruto? They're still just babies; we may be their only salvation from Yahiko.' **

Sakura's smile fell, replaced with a somber expression, _'There's nine Bijuu and there'll only be four groups so we can get multiple targets. If we do get those two we'll be able to keep Akatsuki away from them for at least six more years, before they become full fledged ninja and make a name or themselves. And we do have these four on our side, it should be an easy task of keeping the boys off Akatsuki's radar. What we need to worry about now is the Uchiha, Pein and Yahiko's deteriorating sanity, and that mystery man that helped the Uchiha. What part does he play in this mess?'_

* * *

Ta Da~! New Update! Not much I know, but these four needed to meet so that I can go further into more pressing matters. Next chapter might have a time skip in it. And please tell me who you want Sakura's partner to be! So far Sasori's the only one that's gotten a vote for that position. Till next we meet! Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	23. Chapter 23

**Whom do you Prefer?**

I want to thank everyone for voting! And for those that have favorited me my story and/or put me and my story on their alert list!

**Hope n' Faith:** Thank you for your vote!

**KoNeKoLuvsU: **Thank you for your vote! And you just boosted my self esteem by saying that!

**VampireTwins234: **Thank you for your vote(s)!

**Black snake eyes: **That's not weird at all, it sounds very good actually. I might just do that.

**Lungs: **I'm so glad I have you to check me on this stuff! You're such a big help!

**TwilightMelodiac:** Aw, thank you!

**Encharda: **Thank you!

**L.M.D.A.A: **And what are these reasons, hm? (I felt like Deidara for a moment…)

**TheresADogOnYourHeadCo: **Oh hoho! A threesome you say! You kinky person! But, I guess that means I'm pretty kinky too because I actually want to write that now that you got me thinking about it. (and for all the other readers reading this right now no I am not talking about a lemon, I'm to chicken shit to do that, but perhaps in the future I will for now though, nu uh sorry)

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

Sakura wiped the perspiration from her forehead and sighed, she stared down at the unmoving fish for a moment before once again concentrating her chakra into her hand. Her brows furrowed as she concentrated and slowly her hands were enveloped in mint green chakra, her glowing hands hovered over the fish once again but she growled when her hands glow began to sputter, _'No! I have to keep going!' _Her face scrunched up in anger when her chakra ultimately failed her and disappeared. She brought her fist down on the desk and cracked it in her anger, "Damn it!"

'_I'm never going to master it at this rate!'_ Inner sighed,** 'Ne, Outer-chan, you've only been doing this for a month, it'll come to you eventually. It was just a fluke that we mastered the elements so easily, this will come to us in time.'** Sakura pushed away from the desk with a growl, _'We don't have that kind of time! Yahiko and Pein have finally come to a decision on the team pairings! And once we're assigned we'll have to set off on our hunt for the Bijuu _and_ somehow make sure the boys stay safe!' _Inner mulled this over for a moment before sighing, **'You're right but we can't rush this! This is **_**healing **_**we're trying to learn. Its different from all of our offensive moves, we have to stay calm with this or else something bad will happen!'**

Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose, _'You're right, you're right. I just, I just want to know! I need to known how to do this!' _Inner nodded, **'I know how you feel, but we just have to take this nice and slow. We can't rush this.'** Sakura smiled softly, _'Since when were you the calm level-headed one?' _Inner chuckled, **'Dunno, we just may be more alike than we originally thought.'** Sakura joined in Inner's laughter and turned to walk back up the stairs of her basement-turned-lab. As she began her climb up the stairs she briefly pondered how many hours she spent training and absentmindedly rubbed her empty stomach.

Once she reached the top and opened the doors a delectable smell wafted up her nostrils and made her drool, _'Mmm! Sasori's cooking!'_ Following her nose she stumbled her way through the halls and into the kitchen and the ready made table. She drooled even more at the sight of the table full of food. **'Food! Glorious food!'** Sakura reached forward and plucked one of the grilled fish of its platter and into her mouth. "Ah~! So good!" She mumbled around her chews. There was chuckling behind her, "Man little bitch, you're a little piglet aren't you?"

Sakura flipped him the bird, "Fuck you! I enjoy good food!" Hidan's chuckles became louder as he walked up beside her, "Save some for the rest of us!" He said and grabbed the rest of her grilled fish and quickly gulped it down. Sakura elbowed him in the ribs, making him laugh and nearly choking on his stolen morsel. Sasori rolled his eyes from behind the counter as he watched the whole spectacle, honestly, was he the only mature one?

"Hey," Sakura said as she sat down to eat, "Where's Kisame and Zetsu?" The two men looked at each other then shrugged. Sakura hummed as she nibbled on a strip of nori, where could her friends have gone? "Oi little bitch," Sakura glanced at Hidan, "Atsuko wanted to meet with you today for some healing shit or something." He said waving his chopsticks around as he tried to remember what exactly Atsuko wanted Sakura for. Sakura groaned, Atsuko would be expecting her to have gotten further in this simple healing technique. She quickly scarfed her tamagoyaki and set her plates in the sink, "I'll meet you guys at the meeting later today." She said before running to her room to grab her scythe.

With her trusty weapon in hand Sakura left her home and skipped over the rocks leading to the entrance of the cave. As usual it was raining outside, a rather heavy pouring in fact. The clouds sported an eerie mixture of black and gray and the rain fell down in thundering sheets. Despite the melancholy atmosphere the typical day emitted Sakura smiled, this was her normal. The rain was her sun, her warmth. Stepping away from the coverage the overhang of her cave gave Sakura tilted her face up to let the rain fall over her. She froze, however, at the water's contact.

This feeling, this oh so familiar aura in the water, why was Pein's chakra coursing throughout the rain? Her smile instantly fell and her shoulder's slumped, she turned her face away from the sky. Did they have to control the weather to? Why couldn't her once sane friends leave at least one thing alone for her? This false rain, why must they torture her so? She began her trek to the village as she mulled this over. Her insane friends were serious in their endeavor to control everything weren't they? If they could already control the weather and only at the age of nineteen, what else were they capable of?

Is their impossible quest for the capture of the Bijuu not as impossible as it once was? Sakura sighed as she past the village gates; it must be possible if they were willing to try it. Though her friends may be insane, they would never do anything unless they new that they would be able to complete it. Her face contorted into a scowl at the thought, yes, this suicidal idea is definitely conceivable, no matter how much she wished it wasn't. And still she has yet to find an alternative for her own quest for peace. Every alternative she did come up with was immediately shot down because it would conflict with other peoples' morals and ideas.

And she couldn't use them otherwise yet another war would break out because the people would want to keep their beliefs alive and not listen to others. The more she thought of it, the more she realized how impossible the idea of peace really was. What one person would desire another would resent, and the conflicts that would arise from the argument would always end in bloodshed. Maybe, maybe she should give up the idea of world peace. Maybe instead she could at least find some sort of level ground for everyone. A way for them to coexist with each other that wouldn't lead them to trying to slit each other's throats. She needed to find something that everybody thought good of, like how her boys would have an uneasy coexistence with each other. Though the four hated each other they refrained from fighting for her sake, maybe she could apply the same concept on a much larger scale.

But what could be used for that? She decided to put the thought on the back burner as she strolled up to the library. Taking in a deep breath and building up her confidence she opened the door and hesitantly walked inside. Atsuko wasn't at the front desk so Sakura began making her way to the back room and sure enough Atsuko was there. The black haired woman smiled widely at her entrance, "Sakura-chan! How's your practice coming along? Did you make any progress?" Sakura winced and shifted her weight from foot to foot, "Ah, about that. Um, no, actually I haven't."

Amazingly Atsuko's smile never faltered; in fact it grew, "As expected, medical ninjutsu is a very hard technique. Only those with the most excellent chakra control and concentration can use it. It requires an immense amount of patience, confidence, and stamina. It took me half a year to do the same exercise you're currently doing. Believe me Sakura-chan, it'll come to you soon, you have much potential." Inner smiled, **'See! I told you not to worry! We'll get it eventually!'** A smile blossomed on Sakura's face, "You think so Atsuko-san?" Atsuko chuckled at Sakura's exuberant expression, "Of course Sakura-chan, now don't you have that little meeting to attend to?"

Sakura sighed loudly, "Yeah…" She flicked her bangs out of her eyes, "We're supposed to be assigned partners today," she rolled her eyes, "Fun." She said dragging out the 'u'. Atsuko chuckled, "I'm sure it won't be that bad." Sakura shrugged, "Eh, doesn't mean I want to see them. Was there anything else you wanted me for?" Atsuko tapped her chin as she thought then leaped out of her seat, "Oh yes! I wanted to give you this!" She said and ran to one of the desks and pulled out a large scroll. "This, my dear, is a summoning scroll. I'm not sure what it is that you summon from it, it's a rather old one and there are no records of it, at least I couldn't find any records on it. I thought that perhaps you would like to have it."

Sakura cocked her head to the side confused, "Don't you want it Atsuko-san?" Atsuko laughed, "Oh I already have a contract and don't wish for another." Sakura mumbled a small 'oh' then took the scroll from Atsuko. "Go now Sakura-chan; find who your partner will forever be." Sakura sighed and turned to leave the room, "See ya Atsuko-san." She said before leaving the room. Sakura scowled at the still pouring rain and briskly walked the ten minute walk to the mansion.

Once there Sakura steeled her nerves and pulled on her normal facade before entering. Navigating through the many winding hallways she finally came upon the conference room. Pushing through the doors Sakura nodded to the smiling Yahiko and sat across from Zetsu. "Now that our final member is finally here I'm sure you would all like to hear who is being paired up." Every member sat a little straighter in their seats, "Zetsu you will be paired with Orochimaru, Kisame with Itachi, Hidan with Kakuzu, and Sakura with Sasori."

Sakura let out a silent sigh of relief at her assigned partner. Thank Kami! Someone she knew! "Now to assign the Bijuu," Pein said, Yahiko nodded in agreement, "Zetsu and Orochimaru have the three tailed, Kisame and Itachi the nine tailed, Hidan and Kakuzu the two tailed, and Sakura and Sasori the one tailed. We'll assign the other Bijuu to teams that have already successfully captured their target. He gave them a dismissive wave, "You may begin your hunting whenever you choose to, we'll assign you other tasks later on. Dismissed."

The group stood and filed out of the mansion. Sakura laughed happily once outside, "Yes! I get to stay with you Sasori!" Sasori sighed, "Great." Unperturbed by his sarcastic comment Sakura turned to the rest of the members, "Now, how about we go home and celebrate!"

* * *

Ta da! Now we're getting further along in the story! I'm thinking of putting in another time skip soon to get the story moving, not much can happen with our favorite jinchuuriki being five year olds. Aaaaaand! My birthday's tomorrow! (Monday) So for my 16th birthday you can all leave me a review and give me suggestions for what Sakura should summon! Till next we meet! Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	24. Chapter 24

**Whom do you Prefer?**

**Black****snake****eyes: **Damn! How'd you know?

**Azn****Lord: **Oooh! That sounds good!

**ISteepedOnAFruitLoop:** Thank you!

**Yuuki-Hime****2097: **Oh, that's a good one to. But I've gotten a couple votes for one summoning creature already, I'm sorry!

**Parpallee: **Oh thank you! Now I have a goofy smile on my face!

**Lungs: **Yes, that sounds pretty good. I've actually gotten some other recommendations for that summoning animal after you!

**Encharda: **I'm gonna do that!

**L.M.D.A.A: **THANK YOU! *hugs back*

**Hope ****n****' ****Faith: **Pfft…wolves. Yeah, I have them in two of my other stories, but they're demons! I love them though, so fun to write…

**TDI-Ryro-Eclares: **The next chapter is right now!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

* * *

Sakura blearily opened her eyes. She remained on her bed for a moment more, reminiscing about last night's celebratory party. She had invited all of the men, not just the ones that live with her. The party was very…entertaining. Kisame and Hidan ended up having a drinking contest and Kakuzu handled the bets as everyone gathered around to watch. Sakura had laughed joyously when it was first announced, "I'll put up 1000 yen on Kisame!" She knew how much of a drinker Kisame was, it took a lot to get him buzzed let alone drunk enough to pass out.

She swore Kakuzu had money signs in his odd colored eyes at her announcement. Hidan looked offended, "You don't think I'll win little bitch?" She chuckled, "You don't have a snow ball's chance in hell." He bristled at her comment, "I'll show you lil' bitch!" And so the drinking commenced. They went through five bottles each, Kisame was faintly feeling buzzed while Hidan was stumbling around and slurring out profanities, his face flushed.

"I-*hic* I can, I can still go!" He had yelled slamming down his cup and glaring at Kisame. Kisame had smirked and took his shot, "Come on then." He said, lightly setting his cup down and began to refill both their cups. Hidan had fumbled with the cup for a moment before steadying it enough to take a sip; he passed out before he could drink the whole thing. Kisame shook his head with a sigh, "There goes another one…" He downed the shot with a large smile and Sakura pumped her fist in the air, "Yatta! Pay up bitches!" Around her the men who had bet on Hidan grumbled unhappily before setting the money in her hand.

She had closed her fist around the large wad of money and patted Kisame's shoulder, "Thanks sharky!" Kisame had smiled widely at her, "Sure thing pink." Then she had skipped off to her room, shouting at the men to not ruin her house and that any mess they made they would have to clean. After she had tucked the money safely away in her drawer she had changed into her night clothes and rolled into bed, intending to sleep well into the morning.

And so she did. Her sleep was long and she felt like a new person when she woke. Sitting up Sakura cracked her back and rolled her neck to help loosen the joints up then stumbled out of bed and to her bathroom. Turning the water on she quickly stripped then jumped into the lukewarm water and began to wash her hair and body. Once done she turned the faucet off and wrapped her body in a plush black towel and wrapped her hair with a separate one.

Walking to the sink she grabbed her toothbrush and hastily, but efficiently, brushed her teeth before going back to her room. She changed into a gray tank top with black slacks and took her hair out of its turban to instead furiously rub at it then run a brush through it. After hanging her towels up to dry she grabbed a spare hair tie and brought her pink locks into a messy bun before finally leaving her room. Upon entering the living room she snorted, Hidan was still passed out on the floor.

With a roll of her eyes she walked past him and to her basement door. Walking down the creaking steps she smiled at her lab. There wasn't much to it yet, just some spare desks, a couple tables, a cabinet to store poisons, and a large tank filled with fish for her current project. Walking over to one desk she pulled out a medical scroll from one of its drawers and rolled it out on top of the desk, she then moved to the tank and peered inside before deciding on a rather small fish.

She poised over the water for a moment then quickly shot her hand into the water and grabbed the fish tightly by the tail. The other fish scattered and she pulled it out, watching as it flailed helplessly in her grasp. Walking back to the desk she waited for the fish to cease its struggle before setting it down in the middle of the diagram drawn onto the scroll. Cracking her knuckles and nervously licking her lips she set to trying to revitalize the fish.

Half an hour in she knew she lost the creature and sat with a huff in a rolling chair. She stared listlessly at the dried, unmoving fish for a couple moments before grabbing it by the gill and trudging upstairs and into the kitchen where she found Sasori glaring at the interior of the refrigerator, "We are out of fish." He stated as she walked up. Sakura blinked, and then held the fish out to him. He stared at it with a calculating eye before, with a grunt, taking it from her. Sakura began to walk away before pausing, "Ne, Sasori?" He grunted, "When are we going to look for our assigned Bijuu?"

She heard him shuffle around in the drawers and take out the large wooden cutting board. "Whenever you wish to Sakura." He finally said as he set to de-scaling the fish. Sakura hummed then left the room, kicking Hidan as she passed him again and giggling when he merely grunted and curled in on himself muttering something along the lines of 'No Atsuko, not that' or something of the sort. Once again in her domain she set to repeating her earlier process for the next couple hours, taking the dead fish upstairs and to the refrigerator for Sasori to later cook.

After the sixth fish she decided to call it a day, after all she had to make the fish last. Glancing around her sparsely decorated lab she reveled in the silence. Shutting her eyes she decided to expand her chakra for the next hour and a half, overflowing her chakra coils and basking in the light feeling her body took on when flooded with chakra. After re-coiling her reserves she stared blankly at the ceiling. For some reason she just did not feel up to training. She felt lethargic and was unmotivated to do much more than sitting and staring at the ceiling.

Planting one foot on the ground, she kicked off and spun herself in the chair. Watching as everything blurred into a mass of beige, silver, and black. After coming to a slow stop she raised an eyebrow at the large scroll on the largest desk in her lab. Rolling herself over she simply stared at it for a couple moments before realizing it was the summoning scroll Atsuko had given her the previous day. She rolled it out and blinked at the columns off names scrawled in what she believed to be blood that sat proudly on the interior of the scroll.

'_Do __I __really __want __to __make __a __summoning __contract __with __something __I __don__'__t __even __have __the __faintest __idea __could __be?__'_ When she didn't get an answer from Inner she sighed and slouched in her seat. What was the use of having a second self if her second spirit could just ignore her? Glancing at the scroll again she sighed and sat up, "Fuck it, I'm making the contract." Biting her thumb until she pierced the skin and drew blood she scrawled her name beside the previous ones then sat back. Now what?

Scratching the side of her head Sakura decided that it was rather stupid of her to make a contract without first knowing the proper hand signs to use whatever it was said contract would gift her with. **'****Dumbass.****'** A sleepy voice told her before light snores filled her head. Sakura rolled her eyes, only Inner would wake up just to call her a rude name then fall back to sleep. **'****Damn ****straight.****'** She shook her head irritated at her second spirit.

After pondering her situation for a moment she snapped her fingers in realization and ran up stairs and to Kisame's room. Shutting the door behind her she ran and jumped on her blue friend, he grunted at her weight and blearily opened his eyes, "What do you want?" He asked in a strained groan, obviously wanting to return to his sleep. "How do you summon?" He rubbed his eyes, "What?" He asked, rolling onto his side, back facing her.

Undeterred by his actions she simply propped her self on him, leaning onto his prone form, "How do you summon." She said, drawing out each word as if talking to a child, "What are the hand signs?" He grumbled at her, not liking her attitude before groaning out which signs she was to use, "Now leave me alone, I have a headache." He said, pulling his blanket farther up his body. Sakura smiled, "Thank you!" She chirped before leaping off his bed and back to her lab.

On her thirteenth trip past Hidan she found the man groaning as he finally woke up, clutching his head and cursing about the painful light. "Morning, I mean, afternoon Hidan!" Hidan didn't return the greeting, instead opting to continue his endless stream of profanities and stumble off to the sanctum of his dark bedroom. Sakura chuckled; she enjoyed seeing her friends wrought in pain from their own stupidity. Who challenges the famous drinker and doesn't consider the repercussions for doing so?

Going back to her lab Sakura cleared a small portion of the floor in her lab and bit her thumb once again before going through the required hand signs. She slammed her open palm on the floor, "Summoning Jutsu!" Immediately a large cloud of smoke enveloped her. She waited eagerly for the smoke to dissipate and reveal her summoned animal. When it finally did her eyes widened and she stared down at the cutest darn thing she had ever set her eyes on. The animal blinked up at her with ice blue eyes and let out a pitiful meow.

"Kawaii!" Sakura squealed, picking the small white tiger cub up and cradling it to her chest. It purred and snuggled into her warmth, Sakura swore it had a small smile on its tiny face. Scratching it under its chin Sakura smiled when its purr kicked up a notch. _'__Is __it __a __boy __or __girl?__' _A quick glance between its legs showed her that it was a girl. Its maw opened to let out yet another pitiful meow and Sakura sat back on her heels wondering what it was the cub wanted. "Are you hungry?" The cub's eyes met her's and let out another meow she smiled, "I'll take that as a yes." Once again cradling the cub to her chest Sakura went back upstairs and to the kitchen.

After grabbing one of the fish from the refrigerator she sectioned it off into several strips and fed the mewling cub. With the cub satisfied Sakura hurried off to the garden, "Zetsu! Zetsu! Zetsu!" Throwing open the garden door she smiled when she found her friend. "Zetsu look!" Zetsu turned away from the flowers he was tending to and cocked his head to the side confused when he saw the little black and white fur ball in Sakura's hands, "Where did you find it?" He asked stepping towards her as she set it down.

The cub stumbled on its feet and trotted over to the plants, swatting a paw at the drooping leaves of a sprout of a willow tree. "I summoned her!" Sakura proudly stated. Zetsu blinked, "Oh." He finally said, staring as the cub played with his plants and tore the leaves off. He sighed, his garden would suffer greatly from the little vermin.

* * *

Nyaaa! She summons kitties! So kawaii (aru!)! I thinking of putting a time skip next chapter to really get the ball rolling, its about time I put some action in this story! But before I do, who wants Sakura to disguise her self as a genin and enter the Chunin Exams? I've recieved a request for it a couple chapters ago and am wondering if you all would like for me to do that. Till next we meet! Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana

**P.S**

You guys should check out my new story 'Forgotten' or 'A New Beginning'! Now they're not Sakura stories but I am using an OC in both of them. 'Forgotten' is a Sky High story and 'A New Beginning' is a crossover-but-not-really with Transformers and Elfen Lied, my friends think I'm stupid for making them but hey, I want to see what you guys think. Hopefully I'll see you there!


	25. Chapter 25

**Whom do you Prefer?**

**miscellaneous Sam: **Thank you!

**Sharky97: **Thank you for you input!

**L.M.D.A.A: **Haha, it was wasn't it?

**Lungs: **That does sound like a good idea. Oh I'll do that; I can't just leave him out.

**Namikaze ****Soul: **Haha, thank you!

**Encharda: **Thank you!

**Bloody ****Rose: **I do plan on using Itachi more in the future and I'll put a poll up soon to see who you all want Sakura to end up with. With that said, GIVE ME MY DAMN COOKIE NOW!

**Black ****Wolf ****Lady: **Thank you! I have no idea who Sakura's going to end up with. I am leaning a little toward one suggestion but I dunno, I'll make a poll for it soon and put it up on my profile.

**Kale-FTW: **Um, no. Sorry. She's going to be summoning tigers, if enough people wish for it I may consider letting her have more than one summoning animal, though it may only stay in the feline family, but at this point in time I'm content with leaving her with tigers.

**CrazySakuraHarunoXD: **Hmm, as stated above, I really only plan on keeping her with tigers. But if people want a "kitty-puppy kawaiiness fest" I'll consider it. The wolves may derive from my first story though. Again, as stated above, I'll be posting a poll for the pairing soon. You flatter me so; does my story really affect you so? That's the highest compliment anyone has given me for this story yet, I thank you sincerely for it.

**TheresADogOnYourHeadCo:**I sincerely apologize for the uber late update, I was in a rut while doing my Junior Research Paper and once I was out I went right to work on another story (_A__New__Beginning_) but I'm back now!

**Hope****n****' ****Faith:** Lol, so aggressive. I'll be sure to smack some Neji time in, if only for you.

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

* * *

Sakura stared wide eyed at the flailing fish in front of her. **'****What ****in ****the ****hell ****are ****you ****doing ****Throw ****the ****damn ****thing ****back ****in ****the ****water ****before ****it ****dies ****again!****' **Inner screeched. Startled, Sakura knocked the fish off the table with a shout and scrambled after the moving fish. "Stay still damn you!" She cried, finally capturing the fish. It thrashed madly in her hands and almost slipped out again if not for her quick reflexes. Finally reaching her tank she carefully set it back into the water. It floated motionlessly, most likely stunned, for a moment before it kicked its tail and swam away from her hands.

Stepping away from the rim of the tank Sakura watched the fish swim along the interior of the tank with wide eyes. A month and a half, it took her a month and a half to finally master that damned jutsu. **'****About ****fucking ****time! ****We ****need ****to ****hurry ****up ****and ****master ****all ****this ****shit!****' **Sakura rolled her eyes, _'__Weren__'__t __you__t he __one __that __told __me __to __take __things __slow?__'_ Inner huffed, **'****Yeah, ****well ****that ****was ****before ****I ****found ****out ****how ****slow ****you ****are!****'** Sakura shook her head, Inner was such a hypocrite. **'****Am ****not!****' **Sakura snorted, _'__Sure, __keep __telling __your__self __that.__' _Inner pursed her lips and crossed her arms, **'****I ****am ****not ****having ****this ****conversation ****any****more!****'**

Sakura smiled, _'__Finally! __You__'__re __going __to __shut __up!__'_ Inner's mouth opened appalled, **'****Why ****you-! ****Argh!****' **She cried, stamping a foot and locking herself away somewhere Sakura had no hope of reaching while still conscious. Chuckling lightly to her self Sakura bounded up the steps of her lab and almost crashed into the Uchiha. She froze, clenching her fists as the Uchiha stared monotonously back at her. Upon returning to Ame, she had learned that the Uchiha was actually her age and not two or three years younger than her like she originally believed.

He was an odd one, he rarely talked and always had the same blank mask on, his emotions perfectly controlled. She was only that way when around Pein and Yahiko, but this kid, he was that way 24/7. He hardly even _blinked_. He unnerved her to no end, who could possibly keep up such a façade? However, he never learned how to rein in the emotion in his eyes, unlike she herself had. Because of the minor glitch in his armor she always knew what he was feeling.

Besides being unnerved by him, she felt an endless sense of pity toward him. He practically secreted sorrow and regret, how was it that only she could see it? He hated himself for murdering his family; he constantly berated himself for leaving his brother behind to fend for himself. She couldn't hope to understand why he did it; though she knew it was a mission (like that mystery man proclaimed) she would never understand why he undertook it. Was this 'Konohagakure' so important that even his family could not hope to compare? Apparently so because he slaughtered them all, though he did appear to have enough compassion to let his younger brother live.

Though she knew he could be a powerful ally in her cause, she just couldn't bring herself to take the first few steps toward friendship; her morals prevented her from doing so. Killing the adults, fine, she could let that pass. But he had killed the children too, the helpless babies of his family. That she could not forgive, in time perhaps, but at the moment she could not. She gave him a curt nod, "Uchiha." He nodded back, "Haruno." They stared at each other a moment more before a cursing Hidan snapped them out of their staring contest.

"Back the fuck off Atsuko! Damnit woman! I said stop it!" He growled; swatting at Atsuko's outstretched arm as she repeatedly poked and prodded at him. Upon seeing her student Atsuko smiled, "Hello Sakura-chan! I came by to see how you've progressed, nice home by the way." Sakura beamed, "Thank you Atsuko-san. I was just about to find you too; I just mastered the Mystic Palm Technique." Atsuko raised an eyebrow, "Is that so? Well, it seems you'll be able to complete your training sooner of you're this quick when learning the techniques"

Sakura's eyes brightened at the prospect of completing her training earlier than planned. "Our next lesson will be a collaboration with Sasori: poison." She jerked her thumb behind herself, toward the rooms. "I've placed numerous scrolls on poisons in your small library and some others on the human anatomy, pressure and chakra points, and the chakra circulatory system. I expect you to memorize everything in them; they're vital information if you'll need if you wish to also use malicious medical chakra." Sakura bit her lip in anticipation for her coming lessons, this was what she wanted, new ways to attack and defend.

Atsuko clapped her hands, "But before that, did you make the contract? What did the scroll summon?" It took Sakura a moment to figure out what Atsuko was asking about but once she did a giddy smile lit her features. "Oh Atsuko-san! It's the cutest thing! Tigers! I can summon tigers!" Atsuko hastily blinked, "Tigers? You summon tigers? Wonderful! A strong animal, versatile, not to mention beautiful. Let me see, summon one." She said and without hesitation Sakura bit her thumb, drawing blood, and quickly went through the hand signs, slamming her open palm on the ground, muttering the jutsus' name under her breath.

Once the smoke dissipated a small mewling cub was revealed. Sakura picked it up, cradling the small animal in her arms as it let out a long purr, snuggling into Sakura's warmth. Atsuko gasped, "Oh my! I've heard of this contract!" She said stepping forward and stroking the cub's head. Sakura cocked her head confused, "What do you mean Atsuko-san?" Atsuko smiled, "This type of contract is rare, no wonder I couldn't find any information on it. When summoning this little guy you released a lot of chakra, which would normally summon a much stronger animal. However this type of contract does not operate in the same fashion as most other contracts."

The cub's eyes opened, locking on Atsuko as the woman began her explanation. "You need little to no chakra for this summoning, the animal will always appear. For a stronger partner you must train with them, grow with them, and learn with them. Their strength is based on yours, on the bond you share with them. They're the ultimate summoning. With continuous training, and by feeding your chakra to them, they will become the greatest weapon you can ever wield. Not only that, but once you summon them, they can choose when to leave. So even if they are defeated in a battle, if they wish to remain with you, they will. They can only return back to their world if they wish to."

Sakura stared down at the small animal in her arms in awe; it stared back up at her and blinked. "Amazing," She breathed, lifting the animal so it was eye level with her, "You're amazing." She said. The cub nodded to her, accepting the compliment. "You must name her to Sakura-chan. She needs a name." After a moment she knew then name of her cub, "Yuzuki, her name is Yuzuki." Atsuko nodded, "A fitting name." She glanced up, "Oh, hello there. Itachi, right? How are you?" Sakura tensed and turned around, finding that the Uchiha had not left like she expected him too. He peered down at Yuzuki, who mewled up at him. "Aa." He said before turning around and leaving.

Atsuko looked terribly confused. Sakura shook her head, "Don't mind him, that's his answer for everything." Slowly Atsuko nodded, "Yes, well, why don't you get to studying? I'll return in two weeks time to begin the next step in your training." Hefting the cub into a more comfortable hold Sakura nodded, "M'kay Atsuko-san." She said before walking to the kitchen to make herself something eat. She heard Hidan and Atsuko begin their usual banter and smiled, those two were so cute together. She often wondered if their relationship was more than simply a friendly one, or rather _how_ friendly their relationship was.

Setting the cub down onto the counter Sakura trifled through her fridge, grabbing a fish for the cub and moving to her cabinets to see if there was anything edible there. Finding only a lone cup of ramen noodles she sighed, making a mental note to go grocery shopping later she put the kettle on the stove to heat some water. Going back to the cub she sliced the fish and fed them to Yuzuki, watching as the cub gobbled them up and licked its maw afterward. Sakura absentmindedly scratched under Yuzuki's chin, "I wonder, will you be able to talk like other summoning animals?"

Yuzuki nodded once to confirm Sakura's wonderings. Sakura hummed and pushed off the counter when the kettle let out a wail. Turning the stove off she poured the water into her ramen cup and waited for the three minutes to pass. Yuzuki let out a meow and Sakura turned to her, "What? What do you need?" There was a small growl and Sakura laughed, "You're still hungry?" The cub harrumphed and Sakura lifted her hands in defense, "Sorry! Sorry! Didn't mean to offend you!" The cub sneezed in irritation. Grabbing another fish from the fridge she instead gave it whole to the cub, who instantly began to gnaw on it.

Grabbing her own, now finished cooking, food Sakura began to eat. Quickly finishing her meal and throwing the Styrofoam cup away along with the fish bones from Yuzuki's meal. Cradling said cub once again Sakura wandered off to her library to begin studying.

**o0o**

A month into her training with Atsuko and Sasori Sakura noticed something; her house was full of men. For some odd reason everyone in Akatsuki, with the exception of Yahiko and Pein, had chosen to live in her home. She was happy for the added company but she wondered when Orochimaru, Kakuzu, and Itachi decided to house with her. After she hosted that one, single, party they just never left. **'****Yet ****we****'****re ****still ****a ****virgin.****'** Inner grumbled.

Sakura groaned, _'__Oh __please, __not __this __conversation __again.__'_ Inner placed her hands on her hips, **'****And ****why ****not? ****There ****are ****six ****smexy ****men ****living ****with ****us ****and ****you****'****ve ****yet ****to ****jump ****a ****single ****one!****' **Sakura grimaced, _'__You __cut __Orochimaru __out __of __this __equation __right? __If __not __you __have __some __serious __problems.__' _Inner gagged, **'****Of ****course ****I ****did ****you ****sicko! ****Who ****would ****want ****that ****thing?****'** Sakura shrugged, _'__There __are __some __creepy __people __in __this __world__…'_ Inner stuck her tongue out at the possibility of anyone finding the snake man attractive. **'****That****'****s ****just ****nasty.****'** Sakura wholeheartedly agreed.

Realizing they were trailing off topic Inner began again,** '****Why ****are ****we ****still ****a ****virgin? ****I ****want ****some ****action!****'** Sakura rolled her eyes, it was established long ago that Inner was a notorious perv; she tainted many of Sakura's innocent thoughts with her insistent ramblings of her men and her friends, often leaving Sakura blushing at the absurdity of it all. _'__We __have __no __time __for __men __Inner, __we __have __nine __kids __to __save __remember? __And __we __still __have __to __find __the __other __seven.__'_

Inner huffed, **'****Oh ****yeah, ****I ****forgot ****about ****that.****' **She quieted down and allowed Sakura to finish mixing her antidotes and lock the vials away. **'****Ya ****know, ****we ****should ****probably ****begin ****our ****hunt ****for ****the ****one ****tailed.****'** Sakura frowned, _'__We__a re __not __hunting __poor __little __Gaara-kun.__'_ Inner shook her head, **'****No ****dumbass, ****I ****meant ****we ****should ****probably ****begin ****traveling ****again ****to ****make ****it ****seem ****as ****if ****we****'****re ****searching ****for ****the ****bijuu ****or ****else ****Pein ****and ****Yahiko ****will ****become ****suspicious.****'**

After a moment of internal debate Sakura agreed, she didn't want Yahiko and Pein doubting her. She needed their trust in her so that she would be able to keep the children safe. _'__I__'__ll __bring __it __up __with __Sasori __later, __another __month __or __so __and __I__'__ll __complete __another __stage __of __Atsuko__'__s __training.__' _Inner nodded, **'****Fine ****then, ****but ****remember, ****they****'****re ****always ****watching ****us ****while ****we****'****re ****in ****the ****village.****' **Sakura grimaced, oh she knew. How could she forget? The never ending rain produced by Pein was a constant reminder.

Leaving her lab Sakura wandered around her home in search of her partner, she found him working on a puppet in his room. "What d you need Sakura?" He said once she reached his doorway. Sakura leaned against the doorframe and simply watched as Sasori made careful notches in the wood. "We should probably being our… hunt in another month or so." He grunted at her, not pausing in his work.

Rolling her eyes at him, she left her friend in his room to instead wander aimlessly outside. She didn't go very far before stopping and sitting down on the muddy forest floor. She glanced around taking in the melancholy scenery surrounding her. There were hardly any animals in Amegakure, a few stray birds, frogs, salamanders, and fish were its main inhabitants of the animal kingdom. For the most part Ame in general was really a sad place.

It constantly rained, even before Pein's forced rain, and the only visitors from outside countries and villages were nuke nin. Her small group of friends was part of that fraction. She sighed, yes, Amegakure, her beloved hometown, was a sad place indeed. This made her wonder what the Third Hokage had claimed made Konohagakure so great. 'The Will of Fire,' he said, just what did that mean? It was no secret that Konohagakure prided itself with its renowned fight for camaraderie in _everything_.

But so what? That could not possibly be the only reason. There had to be something more. For the life of her she could never seem to grasp the concept and it irked her to no end. Were friends really all one needed it succeed? She didn't know and doubted she would ever truly understand. Whatever the true reason for success was, Sakura only had six and a half more years before everything unraveled. Her two self-proclaimed charges would become full fledged ninja then.

And she still needed to find a way to save them, the other seven jinchuuriki, take down her friends, find a solution for peace, and not lose her self to the insanity swirling around her self. The next six years would be hard for sure.

* * *

Big gigantic time skip next chapter. Chunin Exams will commence! Also, I'm putting a poll up in my profile to see who want Sakura to be paired with. If a sugestion isn't posted PM it to me and I'll consider it. And for my readers without an account, simply leave your vote in a review. Till next we meet! Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


	26. Chapter 26

**Whom do you Prefer?**

Hello everybody! Long time no see eh? Well to start, I guess I should say that there is a small time skip of two years this chapter. I realized that before I can begin the Chunin Exam I would have to get rid of Orochimaru, so he will be dealt with this chapter. Some bonding will happen between Sakura and Itachi this chapter too. I hope you enjoy!

**Winged-angel21: **Thank you!

**SanDavis687: **Thank you! I always like to hear (or rather read) that!

**Lungs: **Young Sasori shall appear very soon! This chapter will have some bonding between Sakura and Itachi, so for sure next chapter the time skip will appear! Well Sakura's current age is 15, and with the four year time skip she'll be 19. Next chapter I'll post everyone's ages

**Black Wolf Lady: **I'm so sorry for the late update! I suck so bad .

**L.M.D.A.A: **I hope you like this!

**Hope n' Faith:** I'm so sorry! This chapter, I promise, will be longer!

**XxSakuraxHarunoXx: **Thank you!

**CrazySakuraHarunoXD: **Thank you!

"Blah"= talking

'_Blah'_= thinking

**'Blah'**= Inner Sakura, Dark Zetsu, Samehada

* * *

Sakura bit back a yelp at the jarring pain the kick to her back inflicted upon her. Just her luck, they had found her one weakness. The rogue nin laughed heartily and threw another harsh kick to her back, landing square on one of her larger scars. This time she couldn't hold in the shout and cried out. The man grabbed her hair, "We'll have some fun, just you and me. But first I'll have to punish you for killing my brother." She flinched at the feeling of his tongue licking up the side of her face.

She should have never underestimated them, they were S-class rogue nin for a reason. Pein had paired her with Itachi and Orochimaru for this mission, the reason he did so was beyond her. Maybe he knew that she absolutely despised these two members and wanted to torture her. Whatever the reason, the moment he told her this she knew that it wouldn't end well. One of the shinobi-less villages allied to them was being plagued by a large group of rogue nin ranging from B to S class. The three of them were sent to exterminate every nin and collect whatever they had of value to give back to the village for repairs and take the rest back for Akatsuki's overall income.

Once they had reached the village they had a brief conference with the village head and instructed the villagers to remain hidden until they gave them the O.K to resume their daily lives. Ever grateful for help villagers agreed and instantly hid within the depths of their homes to leave the shinobi to their business. With the help of numerous shadow clones and Orochimaru's snakes, the trio had set up traps all around the outside of the village so no rouge nin could attack their charges. They then set to sectioning off the large campsite the rogue nin had created seven miles south of the village. They sent more of Orochimaru's snakes inside the camp to catch the nin off guard and keep them distracted while they worked on dispatching the guards silently.

Once inside the camp the slaughtering began. Itachi had set his whole section on fire, burning the nin alive and killing all the ones that managed to avoid the fire by hand. Orochimaru summoned three large snakes and let them feed on any nin they found. Sakura was left to slice down every nin that came her way. And she was doing fairly well until five of them caught her off guard and halted her advancements with their brute strength. Her scythe was torn away from her when the single weapon specialist had used a kusarigama to entangle it with his chains and leave her defenseless just long enough for a pair of twins to double team her.

She would dodge one only to have the other mercilessly beat her to the ground. She was able to kill one with her retractable claws when he had charged at her and missed. When he tried to spin and retry she swooped in and sliced his throat, using his body as a shield when the weapon expert sent a wave of kunai and shuriken at her. However she was unprepared for the brother to leap out the ground and give her a nasty uppercut that sent her sprawling on the ground next to the biggest brute in their ranks.

With her at his feet he promptly stomped on her chest, knocking the wind from her and a spray of blood. A kick to side had her rolling towards the brother again who stopped her with his foot and created shackles straight out the earth to pin her to the ground. And that is how she came to be beaten down like a useless genin. The man pulled on her hair causing her head to burn as strands were torn from her scalp. "What do you think of that girly? Sound appealing to you? I know it does to me."

Sakura grit her teeth, "Go fuck yourself you worthless bastard." He laughed loudly, "Now why would I do that when I have a pretty little thing like you to fuck senseless? By the time I'm done with you you'll be begging for me to fill you up to the brim." She snorted, "Fill me with what? You're-" Before she could finish her smart remark he slammed her head into the ground to silence her. "What was that darling? You want me to fuck you right now? Well if the lady asks for it who am I to deny her the right?" He trailed his hand down her the sides of her body and resting them on the curves of her hips. He grabbed her tightly and ground his erection hard into her ass groaning when she began to flail helplessly, "No one's going to help you girl, I have you all to myself."

He was just beginning to pull down her pants when he was tackled by a pissed Yuzuki. The tigress roared angrily before biting his jugular and promptly tearing the man's throat out. "Sakura-hime!" She cried, bounding toward her mistress to release her from her bindings. Once free Sakura half hugged Yuzuki before pulling her katana out from its sheath, "Did you see my scythe anywhere Yuzuki? I had last it just before that guy caught me." Yuzuki shook her head, "No hime, I didn't see it on my way over. Perhaps we'll find it after the battle?" Sakura nodded, "Yes, come on. We have some men to kill." Together the two continued farther into the camp, killing those that got in their way effortlessly.

By the time they were in the center both had their fare share of wounds and had numerous blood splatters all along their bodies. It took them nearly two hours to wipe the rest of the rouge nin out. Sakura examined herself and her temporary teammates; all of them were wounded and would need her attention. "Come here Yuzuki." Wordlessly her summoning walked up to her and let Sakura scan a glowing hand over her to close up the minor wounds and abrasions she had acquired during the long fight.

Sakura turned to Orochimaru next and closed the single large gash he had on his arm. Once it was closed he set off to salvage anything of value from the torn campsite. With a deep breath she turned to Itachi, who was staring at her with his usual blank expression, "Uchiha let me heal you." He didn't make a move toward her, only stared at her quizzically. With a loud sigh she walked toward him and grabbed his bleeding arm. She hovered her and over the wound and frowned, "You have a mild poison in your system, I'll need to extract it before I can finish healing you." He didn't reply to this so she took is as an O.K. to heal him.

After summoning a couple shadow clones to hold him down she ignored his glare, "I need them to hold you down, this is going to hurt." His glare didn't waver as she summoned up a ball of water and pressed it into his wound, his arm began to spasm causing his eyes to widen and to grit his teeth at the pain. He involuntarily jerked away from her and the tight grip of her shadow clones were all that held him from running away. He couldn't believe how much a bit of water hurt entering his system. If he didn't know how loyal Sakura was with comrades he would have believed she was trying to kill him.

But he knew she would never stoop so low to kill someone, she preferred to fight face to face. To take his mind off the pain he stared at her face, noting the small furrow in her brow and the way her lips puckered in concentration. This girl was not meant for war, he realized. She was meant to heal and protect, to be a mother to live happily and not know the horrors of the world. In the two years he had known her never had she ever betrayed her friends, she never even lied. She kept the truth from people, oh he noticed her doing that many a time, but she never once outright lied.

It was remarkable how pure she still seemed to be amidst all the carnage and destruction. At the moment he could see why Kisame and Zetsu are smitten with her. She's beautiful, not in a stunning way, but in the subtle little quirks she has. Her emerald eyes, her pastel hair, her milky complexion, the way her nose would scrunch up when she would laugh, her unwavering loyalty, everything about her. It was no wonder everyone was so drawn to her, even Kakuzu, the heartless money lover had a soft spot for her. Itachi never once had seen Kakuzu sneer or raise his voice to Sakura. He would simply pet her head whenever he passed her and blink at the blinding smile she would give him.

His musings were cut short when Sakura let out a shuddering gasp and it was then that he noticed the perspiration on her brow and her trembling hands. He glanced at his arm and found it completely healed, when had she done that? Sakura's eyes fluttered and then she collapsed on him, Itachi blinked at her sudden weight. He moved her bangs from her face and checked her pulse, she was still alive, that's good. But her chakra reserves were dangerously low and she had yet to heal herself. Yes, he decided as he picked her up bridal style, she was not meant for war.

**o0o**

The villagers were ecstatic once they had told them the rouge nin would bother them no more. The women had rushed to take in Sakura, tending to her wounds and wrapping her carefully in bandages. Yuzuki was bombarded by the children who let out squeals of laughter as they played with her tail and pulled on her ears. The younger girls crowded around Itachi, murmuring to each other and would giggle whenever they stole a glance at him. The men, though wary, struck up conversation with Orochimaru.

Itachi stood just outside Sakura's resting room as the women put the last finishing touches on Sakura to prepare her for travel. She had yet to reawaken two days after the slaughter, though he knew it was most likely nothing serious Itachi still believed that she should be checked my a medic nin to make sure she was in good health. Yuzuki was going to carry her mistress for the four day trip back to Ame. She had grown in size over the past two years, now standing roughly to Kisame's chest, and had a great deal of strength and stamina. Carrying the petite 120 lb pinkette would be easy for her.

Once Sakura was deemed ready for travel Itachi entered the dimly lit room and carefully picked Sakura up so as not to jostle her and accidentally open any of her wounds. He left the small home with her in tow to the village gates where a vast majority of the village stood to say their good byes and offer their thanks once again to their saviors. One Yuzuki's ice blue eyes caught sight of her mistress' limp form she gently shook the children off of herself so that Itachi may lay Sakura along her back. Once she felt that her mistress would not slip from her back she stood to her full height as she waited for the humans to finish.

The village head walked forward, "Thank you Akatsuki! You have saved our village! We are forever in your debt!" The villagers around him let out murmurs of agreement and all waved as the nin left. Yuzuki was uncomfortable around Orochimaru; he resembled his summoning too much in looks and personality for her to accept him. And with her mistress in her current state, Yuzuki was none to happy to be around the older man. She walked closer to the weasel, knowing that in the long run he was the safer companion and would benefit Sakura in more ways then one.

Itachi too was uncomfortable with being around Orochimaru. There was something about the sly way he eyed Sakura in his subtle glances that put him on edge. That look was not one of concern, no; it was one of predatory delight. Orochimaru wanted something of Sakura, and in her present state it seemed Orochimaru was determined to take it from Sakura in one way or another. Be it physical or otherwise Itachi didn't know, all he knew was that this innocent girl was in danger and he didn't quite know how he felt about that.

They were two days away from Ame and still Sakura had yet to awaken. Now Itachi began to worry slightly, it was not normal for someone to sleep like this. Was her condition worse than he originally believed it to be? Had she slipped into a coma? Sakura's state did not seem to bother Orochimaru in the slightest; in fact, he seemed to become happier the longer she remained in her weak state. They were just setting up camp on their third night just outside the borders of Ame and still free of the constant rain when the attack happened.

Snakes burst from the ground writhing and coiling over each other to get at Sakura. Yuzuki let out a hiss surprised at the sudden attack and attempted to bat the snakes away while Itachi simply threw a fireball at a large cluster of them. Orochimaru watched idly as his snakes attacked laughing at Yuzuki's feeble attempts to keep Sakura safe. Biting his thumb he flew through the familiar hand signs to summon one of his larger snakes, "Do keep the cat occupied, but leave the girl unharmed." He said as he watched the scene unfold, "I'll keep the boy busy." The snake's tongue flicked out of its mouth and he nodded once before slithering toward the oblivious tiger.

He turned to Itachi who was throwing weapons with such precision that he Orochimaru took a moment to admire him. The thin wires Itachi had connected to his weapons allowed Itachi a seemingly endless stream of kunai, shuriken and senbon. With a simple flick of his wrist the small weapons would break free from the skulls of the snakes to instead embed their selves in another, allowing Itachi to quickly dispatch of the hideous creatures. His eyes flickered in the direction of Yuzuki and Sakura when the tigress let out a loud roar.

Sakura flew from her back as the snake head butted her. Furious Yuzuki turned her full attention on the overgrown snake and attempted to claw its eyes out, just barely missing when it jerked back. The snake let out a long hiss and Yuzuki returned it with one of her own, as the two engaged in combat the smaller snakes took this as their chance to rush toward Sakura. Seeing this Yuzuki attempted to bat them away but the snake lunged toward her snapping its jaws and forcing her to leap away. She snarled at him, small lights began to flicker near her paws.

Itachi decided that he would have to save the pinkette and sent a flurry of weapons toward the snakes, stopping only a small number in their tracks. The rest were able to reach her and as they covered her body and became a ball of writhing scales, it seemed as though she was lost. When the snakes began to disappear Orochimaru let out a long laugh. Turning his attention on the older man Itachi found him smiling triumphantly, "Finally, I have found a worthy specimen!" He chortled as a mass of writhing snaked rose beside him, revealing the pinkette. Orochimaru lightly ran his hand down her face, following the natural curvature of her skull and jaw.

He hummed, "I wonder how well I would look with pink hair." He said carelessly, lightly flicking at the pastel locks. Orochimaru's gaze slid over to a tense Itachi, "Come now Itachi, don't think I've forgotten about you. You too have something I want oh so badly." Itachi's eyes flickered and slowly bled red as he activated his Mangekyou Sharingan. "Yes," He hissed, "I will have your gift one day. But for now, she will do." He said, glancing back down at Sakura and began to lean down toward her face.

The kunai shot between him and Sakura narrowly missed the tip of his nose and with a smirk he glanced back up at Itachi who had one arm outstretched. "Oh Itachi, do you plan to stop me? Now why would you do that? She has no value to you, not like your dear little Sasuke-kun." He laughed when he caught the slight movement in Itachi's facial features. "Oh, did I strike a cord in your emotionless heart?" Itachi's eyes narrowed in the slightest, "Well then, who am I to deny a wonderful fight?" Orochimaru's eyes brightened and he ran forward, mouth opening and the hilt of a sword peaked around the edges of his teeth.

Reaching inside he pulled out the long sword, dripping with saliva and oozing poison, and swiped horizontally at Itachi. Leaping back Itachi quickly went through the hand signs and before anyone could blink a large fire ball was sent hurtling toward Orochimaru and consumed him. Itachi fell to the floor and was quick to block the sword attempting to decapitate him from behind, "Do try better Itachi that hardly even grazed me." Itachi's foot connected with Orochimaru's chest and the older man was sent flying back. He flipped once in the air and fell to he ground with a smile. His hand glided over his chest, "Oh my, getting serious now?"

They ran forward again and sparks flew as their weapons connected. Orochimaru smirked, "Such strength, such graceful movements, you truly are a prodigy are you not Itachi?" Itachi remained silent. Suddenly Orochimaru opened his mouth and a wave of snakes sprang forth. Just as they landed on their target Itachi burst into a flock of ravens, each grabbing a snake and flew off, tearing the heads off before reforming back into Itachi. Orochimaru let out a hum of delight, who knew Itachi had such pretty little tricks up his sleeves? "I am tired of your games Orochimaru."

Orochimaru's eyes brightened, "And I am tired of this battle, its time to end this." Itachi's eyes narrowed when the snake nin began to go through a large sequence of hand signs. He couldn't have Orochimaru complete this jutsu now could he? His sharingan spun wildly and he uttered a single word, "Amaterasu!" Immediately black flames burst forth and engulfed Orochimaru. "This is not the end Itachi! I will have her body and yours!" Itachi half snorted when Orochimaru's faint silhouette disappeared.

The fire raged on, consuming the snakes Orochimaru left behind and if he was another man he would have smiled in amusement when Yuzuki kicked the large snake she was fighting into the fire. Turning away from the flames he sought out Sakura's limp form and let out a small breath when he found her relatively unharmed several meters away from himself. Walking toward her he noticed the red blotches in her bandages and knew that her wounds had reopened from being tossed around in the battle.

Almost sighing he picked her up and called out to Yuzuki, it was time to bring the pinkette to her home.

**o0o**

It took three days for Sakura to reawaken from her coma like state after she was healed by Atsuko. The black haired immortal had told him that her intense sleep was created for a number of elements. Lack of sleep, stress, extreme chakra exhaustion, blood loss, the list went on. Zetsu was the first to find Itachi with his unconscious beloved and nearly had a heart attack. She was so motionless he had believed her to be dead. Once she was taken home and healed he never once left her side, arguing back and forth with his self.

Kisame was restless and his insatiable hunger for sake increased and for the first time in his life he had drunken so much he had given himself a hangover. Hidan had joined him in the drinking, slurring curses at anyone and everyone. Kakuzu had simply locked himself away in his room, muttering something about counting money. It didn't help matters when Sasori arrived with a new recruit, a blonde with a mouth on either palm and a speech impediment. When she finally did awaken the men acted as if none of them had a near break down and simply told her to not be so careless in battle.

Her brow had furrowed and her lips puckered, head cocked in confusion. When asked what was wrong all she said was this: "I'm hungry, Sasori, make me some food." Kisame chortled and Sasori sighed, going off to do as told. Kakuzu had snorted, patting her head and leaving her room. Hidan called her a fatty and Zetsu simply smiled lovingly at her, though she was oblivious to it. Then she turned to Itachi and gave him a bright smile, it was then that Itachi knew that Sakura knew all that had happened from the moment she was knocked out due to her own stupidity. She thanked him for protecting and saving her from the snake nin with that smile, he had gained her trust and her eternal friendship.

Yes, Itachi decided. Sakura was never meant for war. She was to caring, to loveable, to loyal. All could bring about her demise. However she had twisted fate around and embraced war, creating alliances with everyone she meet. In giving them her friendship, her care, her love, she gained an unwavering group of loyal ninja practically bent to her every will and whim. But she was too nice to use them in such a way, no; she did not use them as pawns or anything of the such. She simply enjoyed their company. And Itachi decided then and there that perhaps he would join her on her quest for peace. After all, she did seem quite able to twist the fates around. Perhaps she could help him absolve his sins and become reunited with his brother.

* * *

So a short little filler chapter. Orochimaru is now out of Akatsuki, Deidara is in, and Itachi is now part of Sakura's little band of merry friends. And I have to say you guys, I'm quite surprised with the poll results.

Zetsu: 4

Sasori/Hidan: 3

Kisame/Itachi: 2

Kakuzu: 1

I didn't think you all would want Zetsu to be her man. Based on past reviews I thought Sasori and Itachi woud be battling it out for first. The poll is still open, I'll probably end it by the next chapter or two. Until then, vote if you haven't yet! Leave your vote in a review if you wish too, just vote! Also, please tell me what you think and any suggestions you may have! Till next me meet! Ja Ne!

-Linda Chicana


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